


Little Accidents, Big Developments

by babyjellyfish (arrestjellyfish)



Series: Little / Big [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Age Dreaming, Age Play Caregiver Logic | Logan Sanders, Age Play Caregiver Morality | Patton Sanders, Age Play Little Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Age Play Little Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Age Regression, Age Regression/De-Aging, Bathing/Washing, Bed-Wetting, Brotherly Love, Bubble Bath, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, Diapers, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Dynamics, Family Fluff, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Non-Sexual Age Play, Panic Attacks, Self-Esteem Issues, Separation Anxiety, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Slice of Life, Tickling, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Wetting, no raccoon plushes were harmed in the making of this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 67,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24988852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arrestjellyfish/pseuds/babyjellyfish
Summary: [This is an age regression story]The sides have successfully integrated Virgil's regression and Roman's age dreaming into their dynamic, and everyone seems happier for it. Though, Virgil's willingness to trust the others is tested when a long-term problem starts to present itself around his family; his regression leaves him susceptible to wetting himself.Caregivers Patton and Logan try to help him resolve this issue as well as help Roman through his insecurities, all while navigating their own newly-discovered romantic feelings for each other.Sibling spats, covert kissing sessions, and baby babbles lie herein.
Relationships: Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Little / Big [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808920
Comments: 177
Kudos: 286





	1. A Colourful Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

> If you are unfamiliar with what regression is then there’s a really good explanation on Healthline [here!](https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/age-regression)
> 
> This is only rated T because Patton and Logan make out later in the story, it’s nothing too saucy though. I didn’t even plan to write logicality it just sort of *flails hands around* happened.
> 
> Tumblr blog for this series: [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman tries to look after his baby brother, Logan learns to let loose a little, Virgil is nervous to be left on his own, and Patton can’t take much more of this adorableness without screeching.

It was late afternoon in the mindscape and the house _had been_ moderately quiet. There was the faint clattering of pans as Patton cooked in the kitchen, the soft scratching of Virgil’s crayons, and Logan’s quiet snores coming from the couch. They had been the only sounds cutting through the lazy atmosphere, up until Roman started playing with his Disney figurines. The silly voices and impromptu solos he made the characters perform interrupted the calm, though it was such a common sound in the house that no one seemed to notice the change.

Virgil had regressed a few hours earlier and, as usual, Roman’s littlespace quickly followed. There were a variety of reasons Virgil’s regression often inspired Roman to trigger his age dreaming; seeing Virgil act so young sparked the craving for Roman himself to let go of adult responsibilities, plus seeing Virgil’s various baby items such as his plushes and soft clothes made Roman miss his own little items - especially his toys. Also (and probably most of all), the care and affection that Patton and Logan bestowed upon a regressed Virgil did admittedly make Roman jealous. But he had learned that if he only asked for it, he was given the same level of attention, so it no longer upset him as it had previously. Instead of getting angry like he used to, he knew he could just fall into his own littlespace and he and Virgil could both be taken care of without any arguments. Though that afternoon, not much attention was being given to either of them.

Patton had tasked Logan with caregiving duties when he left to make dinner. While the logical side had taken to his caregiving headspace much more readily in the recent weeks, the lull of the afternoon had apparently made him lethargic and he had fallen asleep not long after.

Roman didn’t mind, though. As Virgil’s big brother, that meant that while the caregivers were not in the room (or were unconscious) it was Roman who was in charge! He hadn’t taken to caregiving, and he had no desire to, but he felt a childish giddiness at being given the role of a protector. Even if it was unintentionally handed to him by Logan falling asleep.

But Roman was quickly realising it was a lot harder to look after Virgil than their caregivers made it look.

The littles had both been preoccupied when Patton left, Virgil colouring a picture and Roman playing with his toys. Though, being much more observant and aware in his littlespace than Virgil was, Roman did notice when Patton left. He had tiptoed out quietly, leaving the distracted Virgil unaware of his departure.

Roman knew this was because of how clingy Virgil had become. Ever since they integrated his regression into the family dynamic, Virgil could hardly bear to be away from his Papa’s side for a minute. Logan had said it was something called ‘separation anxiety’ and that it was common for young children. Whatever it was called, Roman still didn’t see why it was worth crying every time their dad left the room. It wasn’t like he went far.

As expected, when Virgil finished his drawing and held it up to where Patton had been sitting, he stiffened on seeing the empty armchair. Roman looked up at the movement and felt his stomach drop when he saw Virgil’s eyes tear up.

He didn’t like it when Virgil cried, partly because it meant he stole all of their caregivers' attention, but mostly because it made Roman’s tummy flip and his throat get all cloggy when he saw his little brother upset. He didn’t like it.

‘It’s okay, Vee,’ Roman said. He dropped his toys and quickly shuffled closer to Virgil on the carpet. Their caregivers had said Virgil needed to be close to someone if he was sad because it helped him feel safer. ‘What’s the matter?’

Virgil’s fingers flew up to tug nervously at the handle of the pacifier that sat in his mouth. His eyes frantically searched around the room.

‘Dad went to make dinner,’ Roman explained. ‘Look, Mom’s still here,’ he pointed at Logan who let out a timely snore.

‘Theep,’ Virgil lisped through his pacifier, sounding upset.

‘Yeah, he’s asleep,’ Roman said, 'but I'm here too.'

The worry stayed on Virgil’s face, and Roman was about to speak again but fell silent when his hand was suddenly covered by something soft and warm. Roman’s gaze fell down to see that Virgil was holding his hand tightly. When he looked back up, Virgil refused to meet his eyes.

Pride surged through Roman. His little brother wanted comfort and was relying on him! He puffed out his chest to look important and tried to think of a way he could help Virgil feel better. He would prove he was just as smart and kind as their caregivers, and then Virgil would love him just as much.

‘Don’t be scared, baby,’ Roman said then twisted his hand around so that he could grip Virgil’s hand back in reassurance. ‘Do you wanna do another colouring?’

A small whimper escaped Virgil as his hand clasped tighter around Roman’s.

‘You wanna stay with me?’ Roman asked and Virgil nodded slightly. ‘Then let’s do a colouring together. We can show Mom when he wakes up and then Dad and they’ll be really happy we played nice together!’

Virgil perked up at the suggestion and Roman was happy to see he didn’t look close to tears anymore. Roman had helped Virgil to stop being scared _and_ came up with a really good way to play together; he was the best big brother ever!

He summoned a large piece of paper, an assortment of coloured markers, and a black fineliner. With the fineliner, he started drawing a complex lined image of an overgrown bush full of leaves and flowers of various shapes. Virgil did not let go of his hand throughout the few minutes it took to finish and Roman was glad his dominant left hand was the one left free to draw.

When it was done, he tipped the coloured pens out of their case and they tumbled unceremoniously onto the floor.

‘You can start colouring that side and I’ll do this side,’ Roman directed, then grabbed a red marker and began adding colour to a rose.

He stopped after a few moments when he realised Virgil hadn’t moved. He looked up with a frown and saw a hesitance in Virgil’s eyes.

‘C’mon, you know how to colour,’ Roman whined in complaint.

Roman thought he had made Virgil feel happy, but now he was just being a scared baby again. And Roman didn’t even know why! He wasn’t good at knowing what was wrong with Virgil, their caregivers were supposed to do that. A faint frustration bubbled in his chest, but he knew to keep it there and not snap at Virgil. That was when things got _really_ frustrating because when Roman yelled, Virgil would cry then Patton got worried and Logan told Roman off for being mean.

‘Why’re you scared?’ Roman asked. Then a thought came to him and he pouted. ‘Do you not like my picture?’

Virgil’s eyes widened and he shook his head. Roman breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Then what? You don’t like using pens? You dunno what colour to use?’ At the last question, Virgil’s hand squeezed and he nodded.

‘That’s silly,’ Roman giggled. Why was Virgil scared about something like that? ‘You can use whatever colour you want.’

‘Bu’ it yours,’ Virgil mumbled, the pacifier garbling his words.

‘Nu-uh,’ Roman shook his head, ‘I made it for both of us. And it’s boring if I choose all the colours, anyway,’ he shrugged then went back to colouring.

After a few seconds, Virgil slowly picked up a purple marker and Roman smiled at him to show that it was good. They coloured together in silence, their hands still joined between them.

A couple of minutes passed before Roman heard a gasp and looked over to see that Virgil’s pen marks had slipped outside of the lines. It wasn’t surprising; Virgil could never stay inside the lines when he coloured. When he first saw the messy work in Virgil’s colouring book, Roman teased him about it but then Virgil got sad and Patton had explained it was because Virgil regresses so young. Roman pointed out that Virgil was also using his wrong hand to colour because he was usually left-handed but Logan told him not to draw attention to it. So Roman apologised and Virgil was never worried about his messy colouring after that.

But for some reason this time Virgil looked like he’d committed an unforgivable crime. His eyes were wide and he had quickly dropped the pen to hide his hands in his sleeves.

‘That looks cool!’ Roman said quickly. He really didn’t want Virgil to start crying again.

Virgil looked like he was scared of him and it made Roman sad. How come Virgil didn’t believe him? He remembered Logan saying something about _showing_ instead of just _telling_ when you’re trying to get someone to understand you, so Roman decided he should show Virgil that colouring outside the lines was okay.

He stabbed his own pen onto the page and purposefully scribbled over the lines. He looked over at Virgil and saw the younger boy look cautiously from the page to Roman.

‘It’s more fun like this,’ Roman assured him. Then he grabbed a different coloured pen and started drawing swirling shapes outside of the lines. It wasn’t a lie - this was way more exciting than trying to be careful with the colours!

Virgil made a noise of understanding then picked up his purple pen and started scribbling randomly too. Soon they were filling the page with a rainbow of colours and shapes and made a silent game of trying to fill up their side of the page faster than the other. The room gradually filled with their growing laughter.

oOo

Logan awoke to the joyful sound of childish giggles.

In any other situation, it would have irritated him to be jolted out of sleep by someone else’s loudness. He heavily relied upon his body to wake him at the perfect stage of his sleep cycle to avoid any grogginess. Logan had made it very clear to the rest of the household a long time ago that they should not wake him unnaturally unless in emergencies. The others certainly didn’t seem to appreciate it on the rare occasion when Logan’s sleep cycle was interrupted and he had been far more impatient than usual.

Though this time Logan did not mind. Blinking his eyes open to see Roman and Virgil laughing together, joined at the hand and smiling brightly immediately dispelled any of Logan’s unsavoury feelings at being woken up. Though realising that he had fallen asleep while he was meant to be looking after the littles did cause him some guilt.

‘I apologise for falling asleep,’ Logan said, readjusting his glasses. ‘Have you two been alright?’

The two looked up at him excitedly.

‘Mom, I looked after Vee while you were asleep!’ Roman cried triumphantly.

‘Thank you, Roman,’ Logan said, ‘it appears you did a wonderful job.’ Both caregivers had realised Roman required a lot of positive reinforcement when he was little, so Logan always made a conscious effort to praise him.

‘Yeah, I did,’ Roman agreed with a big smile.

Virgil released Roman’s hand and stretched his arms out to Logan wordlessly as if he could somehow make them span the length of the living room floor. Logan immediately got up and walked over, settling to kneel on the carpet between both boys.

‘Have you been having fun with your big brother?’ Logan asked as he wrapped an arm around Virgil’s shoulders. Virgil hummed in confirmation and leaned against Logan’s side.

‘Do you like our colouring?’ Roman asked, tugging on Logan’s other arm harshly.

‘There is no need to pull, Roman. Just asking will do,’ Logan reprimanded gently, then looked down at the large piece of paper (A2 size, he noted) in front of him.

The page was decorated in an intricate, hand-drawn floral design, though the colours did not necessarily reflect the image. There were polka dots and spirals and scribbles and doodles of all different hues decorating the edges of the paper, with the middle of it still uncoloured. It was abstract and so something Logan would never normally have seen the point in. Though, he had to admit the disregard for conventionality was rather creative. And the smiles on Roman and Virgil’s faces were enough to convince Logan of the benefits of it.

‘It is rather colourful,’ he said. His neutral response appeared to disappoint Roman, so Logan promptly added, ‘and beautiful.’

‘Thanks, Mom!’ Roman said with a bright smile. ‘This is my side, and that one’s Vee’s,’ he indicated them with his pointer finger.

Logan looked at it more carefully, noticing the contrast between each side of the page. Roman’s colours were much more varied, seemingly using every colour available, and created elegant swirling patterns and smooth gradients. Not a single part of his side was left blank. Virgil’s side was much messier, with less variation in colours - he had used purples and blues mainly with some occasional hints of red. His pen marks were erratic and there were large streaks of white showing through the ink. His colouring was visibly less thought-out than Roman’s, appearing to be far more based on whimsy rather than aesthetics.

A quiet whimper sounded beside him and then Virgil’s face was pressed into his shoulder. Logan realised his quiet deliberation must have made him anxious.

‘The sides are both very different,’ he confirmed, ‘just as you two are very different.’ Virgil’s face pushed further against him. ‘Though they are both equally beautiful.’

He did not have much time to enjoy the look of surprise and delight on Virgil’s face before Roman was jostling his shoulder for attention again.

‘It was my idea!’ he proclaimed. Logan turned his head to him with an exaggerated look of surprise.

‘It was?’ he gasped.

‘Mhm,’ Roman nodded fervently. ‘Vee was nearly crying, so I said we should colour together to make him feel better.’

Logan smiled encouragingly, though tightened his hold around Virgil as he felt the younger side tense. Roman was not exactly delicate when mentioning Virgil’s tears. Still, he did not mean any harm and so there wasn’t much to be done about it.

‘That was very considerate of you,’ Logan said. ‘Your dad will be glad to hear it as well.’

Roman nodded to himself then jumped back into colouring with rekindled fervour.

Logan took the opportunity to give Virgil his undivided attention. It was a rare moment when Roman was occupied enough to not demand it for himself.

‘How are you feeling, Virgil?’ Logan asked, squeezing his shoulder lightly.

Virgil did not offer a response but looked up at Logan expectedly. He was evidently not very verbal at that moment.

‘Do you need anything?’ Logan asked instead, hoping the more direct question would encourage him to communicate.

‘Papa,’ Virgil whispered as soon as Logan finished speaking, the word muffled by his pacifier.

A sharp, unpleasant feeling spiked Logan’s stomach but he chose to ignore it.

‘Shall we go and show Papa the colouring?’ Logan asked.

‘No, it’s not finished yet!’ Roman interrupted.

Logan sighed quietly then turned to see Roman’s pouting face.

‘I believe dinner is almost ready,’ Logan said, going off of the appetising smells that filled the house. ‘And this is a rather large drawing. You may not have time to complete it before your dad sees it.’

‘He can’t see it yet,’ Roman mumbled grumpily. He started colouring again, though this time he was pressing the marker so hard against the paper it made a squeaking sound.

Logan wanted to respond to Roman’s tantrum but felt a gentle tug on his opposite sleeve. He twisted his body to see Virgil shyly holding a marker up to him.

‘For me?’ Logan asked redundantly, taking the pen.

Virgil pointed at the colouring page, his eyes pleading with Logan.

‘Oh, I see,’ Logan said. He considered for a moment then conceded, ‘I suppose I can help.’

Virgil smiled then picked up a pink marker and started scribbling.

Logan popped the cap off of his own pen and started to draw a simple square on the page. As the minutes ticked by, he experimented with various shapes and marks, though eventually settled on writing numbers chronologically. It was calming, and the boys didn’t seem to mind the difference, instead seeming pleased by the wild variation of work on the page.

It did not take long for the page to fill up, and by the time Logan was reaching the 130s their pens were crowding in on each other, fighting over the last few square inches of white paper. 

Suddenly, there was a cold, wet swipe on Logan’s hand. With a slight delay, they all realised Virgil had mistakenly drawn over Logan’s hand rather than the paper. The pink pen clattered to the floor as Virgil recoiled from Logan, looking at him anxiously.

‘It’s alright, Virgil,’ Logan hastened to reassure him. ‘It’s only a bit of ink. No cause for worry.’

A mischievous giggle sounded from his other side and another cold tip tickled across his skin, this time on his forearm.

Logan looked over in surprise to see a red crown drawn on his arm. His gaze flitted up to Roman’s challenging smirk. If Roman were an adult at that moment, Logan might have accepted the challenge, but this was a child he was dealing with. He could contain his competitive nature if only to prove he would not sink to such silliness.

‘Highly amusing,’ Logan said, trying to get the right balance of playfulness and sternness in his tone, ‘but we should probably stick to drawing on the -’

He was silenced by a quiet giggle and yet another tickle on his opposite forearm. Virgil was scribbling on his arm happily now. Before Logan could close his gaping mouth, Roman was laughing boisterously and drawing on his arm again.

Logan’s gaze darted between the two impish boys helplessly for a few seconds. Then he raised his pen and said very seriously:

‘You both have made a grave mistake.’

oOo

Patton lifted the wooden spoon to his lips to taste his sauce and smiled at the burst of flavour. Perfect.

He dropped the spoon to the counter and turned off the stovetop. After closing the lid on the saucepan to keep it warm, he checked on the vegetables in the oven. Just a few more minutes and they would be done. Perhaps he could risk just a little bit of playtime with his boys while he waited. He rinsed his hands in the sink then started making his way to the living room, excited to see his family again even if he had only been gone for half an hour.

As he traipsed through the hallway, echoes of laughter became audible and grew louder with every step. Once Patton reached the closed living room door, he almost had to cover his ears from the squeals and joyous shouts that came from inside. He eased the door open silently, not wanting to disturb the fun before he got a chance to observe what exactly had them all so hysterical.

As soon as he poked his head around the door, a wide smile stretched his lips.

Heaped onto the carpet were three writhing bodies; Logan was at the bottom of the pile, his back propped against the front of the couch and his legs splayed out on the floor. They were trying to buck off Roman, who sat on Logan's knees and scribbled a pen over his shins, exposed by his rolled-up pant legs. Then there was Virgil, laid across Logan’s lap and wriggling around as Logan bunched up his sweater and scribbled a pen over his tummy. Virgil was doing his best to retaliate by drawing on Logan’s rosy cheeks, but he was flailing so much from the ticklish scribbling that he could not do much besides giggle and squirm. They were all laughing uncontrollably, gasping for breath as they wrestled playfully with one another.

Patton could hardly believe his eyes and hurriedly took out his phone to snap some pictures so that he would have proof later. The others were so absorbed in their play-fight that they did not notice his presence until Patton put his phone away and finally allowed himself to burst into goofy chuckles along with them.

They slowly seemed to notice the extra set of laughter and ceased their attacks to look over at him. Roman was beaming, appearing delighted that Patton had joined them. Virgil looked shy and curled close to Logan in search of comfort, though Patton could see his dimples and knew he was still smiling behind his pacifier. Logan had completely frozen, his smile dropping from his face within seconds and looking like a deer caught in headlights.

The logical side was so stunned that he startled when Virgil drew a heart on his cheek, evidently taking advantage of Logan’s obliviousness. The sensation shook Logan from his stupor and he looked down at the little in his arms and offered a playful mock glare. When Virgil giggled in response, Logan finally looked back to Patton.

‘They started it,’ he stated very seriously, contrasting the flush on his face.

Roman made a noise of offence and immediately started scribbling on Logan’s leg again. The logical side seemed uncomfortable to continue with Patton in the room, though.

‘That is enough now,’ Logan said. ‘I believe it must be dinnertime given your Dad’s appearance.’ Logan looked up at Patton almost pleadingly and Patton gave him the benefit of the doubt.

‘He’s right, kiddos, time to wash up before dinner!' Patton instructed the children.

Roman groaned loudly and collapsed on the floor by Logan's legs, his prolonged whine becoming muffled by the carpet. Virgil was far more cooperative and held his hands up for Patton to lift him. 

Patton complied happily, grasping his arms and hoisting Virgil up to stand. As soon as he was upright, Patton pressed a kiss to his nose. The shorter side made a small sound of surprise.

Logan stood soon after, brushing off wrinkles from his pants. Roman still lay face-down on the floor.

'Come on, little prince,' Patton said. ‘Aren’t you hungry?’

'No,' Roman said stubbornly.

'Playtime is over, Roman, it's dinnertime now,' Logan stated.

'I don't need dinner!'

‘Falsehood.’

'Oh well, I guess Roman won't be coming,' Patton said loudly. Virgil made a noise of worry but Patton stroked his hair gently and winked over at Logan’s concerned look. 'It's a shame... I need a big boy who will help my baby wash his hands. Guess I'll just have to find another brave, handsome prince to help.'

Roman leapt up so fast Patton worried he would collapse from head-rush.

'I can do it, Dad!' he volunteered enthusiastically.

'Oh, thank you, sweetheart!' Patton grinned. He looked to Logan then nodded at Roman pointedly. The logical side nodded, getting the hint.

'Very chivalrous of you, Roman,' Logan praised.

Roman preened at the attention then reached out his hand to Virgil with a bow.

'I shall protect you with my life, young one.' 

Virgil slowly reached out and held onto Roman's offered hand but looked up at Patton nervously.

‘I’m going to be right behind you, sweetie,’ Patton said. ‘I’m not going anywhere, don’t worry.’

Virgil nodded and, led by Roman, the two toddled into the hallway.

As Logan tried to make his way past him to leave the room, Patton couldn’t help himself from giggling.

'So... They started it, huh?' Patton asked.

Logan paused in his path and fidgeted with his tie, straightening it where it had been misplaced by their play-fight.

‘Yes, well,’ he cleared his throat, ‘childish behaviour is to be expected of them.’

‘And it’s fun to join in,’ Patton added with a knowing smile. ‘Just because we’re the grown-ups doesn’t mean we can’t be playful too, Logan. I’m glad you’re having fun with them.’

Logan blushed though Patton saw a smile work its way onto his lips.

‘It is… invigorating,’ Logan said monotonously, then added with a concealed chuckle, ‘and they are quite endearing.’

‘Aren’t they?’ Patton agreed enthusiastically. He desperately wanted to add that Logan too was endearing in his own right, but something stopped him. Not because he didn’t truly believe it, but because he was frightened of Logan realising just how sincere the thought was.

Logan’s mouth opened and closed in quick succession. Then he seemed to abandon his train of thought with a shy smile. It made Patton feel dizzy.

‘Dinner?’

‘Oh, right,’ Patton shook his head lightly. ‘Forgot,’ he breathed through an awkward laugh.

Patton turned and made his way through the hallway in the direction of the kitchen with Logan close behind. He had a sudden thought, pausing by the bathroom door and gesturing for Logan to go through to the kitchen without him. 

As he stood outside the bathroom he heard Roman explaining to Virgil that he had to wait for the water to get warm but not too hot and that he would check it for him so the baby doesn't hurt himself. Patton's heart swelled. He wondered when Roman had gotten so protective of Virgil, but didn’t care to question it at all. It was positively adorable.

He knocked on the bathroom door then eased it open when Roman called him in.

Roman's hand was stuck under the running tap, his t-shirt getting splashed slightly in the process. Virgil waited patiently behind him, still clutching onto his other hand.

‘Sweethearts, can you please use the potty before dinner too?’ Patton asked. ‘You both haven't been since you were big.'

'Okay, Dad,' Roman shrugged. 

'Good boys,' Patton smiled then left for the kitchen.

Just as he and Logan served up the dishes, Roman and Virgil rushed into the kitchen. Well, Roman rushed in, Virgil was dragged behind him quite clumsily. Patton instantly noted the tension in the younger side’s shoulders.

'Are you alright, Vee?' Patton frowned.

‘He was too embarrassed to go potty,' Roman said, pointing at him.

Virgil's cheeks flushed and he ducked his head.

‘We don't point, Roman,’ Logan reprimanded.

‘Oh, sorry,’ Roman muttered, lowering his hand.

'It’s alright, sweetie,' Patton said, then turned his attention to the anxious side. He moved over to rub gently at Virgil’s shoulders, willing him to relax them. 'You didn't wanna go with Roman in the room?'

Virgil shook his head quickly.

'Okay, can you go alone for me?'

Virgil's head shook even faster.

Patton frowned and looked up to Logan for help.

'Virgil, can you tell us why you won’t go to the bathroom alone if not with Roman?' Logan asked calmly.

Virgil just whimpered and buried his head against Patton's shoulder. Patton instinctively petted his hair in comfort.

'Don't worry, baby. Come here,' Patton whispered.

He led Virgil by the hand back to the bathroom, noting how Virgil’s grip tightened as they drew closer. They stopped in front of the door and Virgil ducked behind Patton as if hiding from it. Patton would have thought it cute if it weren’t concerning him.

'Are you too scared to go in on your own?' he asked quietly, knowing Virgil would be more embarrassed if everyone could hear them.

Virgil nodded against his back. Patton slowly turned so that he could see Virgil’s reaction, though made sure his body still blocked his view of the bathroom as Virgil wanted.

'Okay, do you want Papa to come with you?'

Virgil's cheeks turned pink and he shook his head.

Patton felt lost on what to do but could see the whole ordeal was causing Virgil some distress, so he decided to drop it for now. If he needed the bathroom after dinner they could address the issue again. He probably just didn’t need it.

‘Alright, sweetheart, you don’t need to,’ Patton brushed his cheek lightly. ‘Shall we go have our dinner?’

Virgil visibly perked up and nodded his agreement, so Patton led them back to the kitchen where Logan had laid everyone’s plates out.

oOo

Dinner passed by easily, with excited chatter about what they had been up to that afternoon - mostly with Roman speaking on both his and Virgil’s behalf.

After they had eaten, Logan went to have a quick shower to wash off the pen ink and, after a lot of bargaining, Patton finally got the boys to agree they too would bathe, but later. Virgil was too young to bathe alone but also too self-conscious to let Patton bathe him. It was clear he wanted to wait until he was grown-up again, so Patton didn’t push the matter with him. The majority of his careful persuasion was directed at Roman, who did not have any issue with bathing alone (since he could come out of his littlespace voluntarily, unlike Virgil) but was simply stubborn. Eventually, he agreed to wash, though only if he could watch an episode of Steven Universe first. Patton didn’t necessarily mind the compromise.

After Logan got back from his shower, Patton and the littles had already watched one episode of the cartoon. As soon as Logan had entered the living room, Roman darted off to take his shower at light speed. He hurried back within minutes, his hair dripping wet, not wanting to miss any more of the show. Patton chuckled to himself at Roman’s dishevelled appearance, his pyjamas ruffled having been shoved on in a hurry. He would never have let anyone see him like that if he were his usual adult self.

Soon, all four of them were settled into the comfy atmosphere as the third episode started up. Patton and Logan both sat in the middle of the couch. There was barely any space between them, though they didn’t acknowledge it aloud. Meanwhile, Roman and Virgil sat cross-legged on the carpet gazing up at the screen.

They seemed to be enjoying the show far more in their younger mindsets: Roman was bouncing lightly and reciting lines along with the characters animatedly. Virgil was much more subdued, though Patton noticed he had been swaying gently from side to side for the past couple of episodes. He was sure it was a sign Virgil was relaxed and enjoying the cartoon.

Patton slowly began to feel the exhaustion seep into his body, suddenly aware of the fact that he hadn’t had much opportunity to relax that day. He truly didn’t mind that Roman and Virgil were somewhat demanding when little, he enjoyed being there for them. But his head felt heavy and, without a moment to reconsider, he let it drop gently to Logan’s shoulder.

He waited with bated breath to see if Logan would protest but was pleasantly surprised when Logan’s arm very gently curled around his back. He smiled and tried not to squeak with the bubble of excitement in his chest.

A few more minutes passed in peace, and Patton wasn’t sure when but his eyes had fallen shut. It was not often the house felt so tranquil.

Then, out of nowhere, Virgil gasped. Patton’s eyes shot open to watch Virgil clumsily jump onto his feet and bolt out of the room without a word. His pacifier tumbled to the ground where he had been sitting just a second ago.

The other three were shocked into silence for a moment.

‘Huh?’ Roman frowned back at his caregivers, his eyes noticeably settling on Patton and Logan’s cuddling. Patton unwrapped himself from Logan with a faint blush, though any embarrassment was far overwhelmed by concern for Virgil.

‘Was there a monster on the show?’ Patton asked.

‘Not at all,’ Logan said, sounding just as bewildered as the other two.

‘I’m going to check on him,’ Patton said as he jumped up and followed after the younger side without hesitation.

He jogged along the hallway with a heavy feeling in his chest, mind racing with worry. The house suddenly felt bigger than usual. When he rounded a corner, his heart stuttered at what he saw.

Virgil was facing away from him, doubled over in the middle of the hallway. From the back of him, it looked as if he was in pain and clutching his stomach.

Patton rushed over to his side in panic.

'Baby, are you okay? What’s -'

He cut himself off when he realised what was happening. Virgil's eyes were wide with fear, his knees trembling, his hands covering his crotch. They failed to conceal the large wet patch that was quickly spreading on his jeans.

'Oh, sweetheart,' Patton cooed sympathetically, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Virgil only just seemed to notice Patton's presence and he startled then quickly ducked his head in shame. His shoulders shook as a puddle gradually formed at his feet.

'It's okay, baby,' Patton whispered, rubbing his hand over Virgil's back. He gently shushed Virgil’s sniffles for a few moments as the boy’s pants and socks quickly became sodden. When the puddle on the floor finally stopped spreading, only a couple of seconds passed before a hoarse sob bounced off the walls.

‘Honey, it’s alright, I promise,’ Patton desperately reassured him.

He wrapped him in a tight hug and Virgil’s hands immediately clutched at the back of Patton’s shirt. The anxious side cried into his chest and the sound broke Patton’s heart.

‘It’s just an accident.’ He kissed Virgil’s head. ‘Don’t worry, sweetheart.’

Logan’s head suddenly popped around the corner a few feet away, clearly having heard some of the commotion. Patton watched silently as Logan’s eyes fell to the floor and the realisation quickly dawned on him. When he looked up from Virgil’s predicament with a concerned glance, Patton shook his head at him very lightly, not wanting Virgil to feel the movement. He didn’t want to see Virgil even more upset knowing that Logan had been witness to his accident too.

‘Mama is keeping Roman busy in the living room,’ Patton said over Virgil’s head with a pointed look at Logan, ‘and I’m gonna give you a warm bubble bath. Doesn’t that sound nice, baby?’

Logan tiptoed back to the living room without a word.

Unaware of Logan’s brief appearance, Virgil spluttered a little on his tears, the sound muffled against Patton’s shirt. It wasn’t an agreement, but it also wasn’t a denial so Patton took the small victory.

He eased Virgil out of his hold, holding him at an arm’s length as he wiped away his tears. It was pointless, though, as they just continued to fall with Virgil’s shaky breaths. Patton wished he could hold his baby until he stopped crying but he didn’t want Virgil’s skin getting irritated by his wet clothes. Plus, he was sure the poor boy wouldn’t want to be stood in his accident for longer than necessary.

‘Let’s go get you cleaned up,’ Patton smiled softly at him.

He wrapped his arm around Virgil’s shoulders to guide him towards the stairs, silently twirling his pointer finger behind his back. The carpet cleaned itself magically behind them.

Once they had reached Virgil’s bedroom, Patton left Virgil standing by the door while he speedily picked out a pair of underwear and pyjamas for him. He heard Virgil’s soft whimpers and sniffles grow louder and more frequent when he stepped away from him, so he was sure to make quick work of it before his absence upset Virgil any more.

He hurried back to Virgil’s side with the clothes and kissed his forehead tenderly.

‘Good boy, you’re so brave,’ Patton praised. He was forced off of Virgil by a firm head shake.

‘Bad,’ Virgil choked and hid his face in his hands.

Patton’s heart ached.

‘You’re not bad, little one,’ he said, crouching slightly so they were level. ‘It’s not your fault. I should have gotten you to go to the toilet earlier. I’m sorry, baby.’

Virgil shook his head again but didn’t offer any words. Patton assumed he had been pushed into a younger headspace and had gone non-verbal.

He led Virgil to the upstairs bathroom slowly, being careful with each step and rubbing his back soothingly the whole time. When they had reached the door, Virgil’s posture suddenly righted itself and he looked at Patton through his bangs. The older side was shocked to see a strange, distant look in his mismatched eyes.

‘I’m, um,’ Virgil’s voice was still slightly babyish, though there was a forced deepness to it. He quickly cleared his throat and took a deep breath, completely avoiding Patton’s eyes. ‘I-I’m older now. I can do this on my own.’

To say Patton was surprised would have been a severe understatement. Virgil never came out of his headspace so suddenly; even when he had made an effort to end his regression prematurely in the past, Virgil could pretend to be an adult all he wanted but it had been too clear that he was still mentally a child. Right now, he didn’t necessarily sound regressed but there was something wrong about it that Patton couldn’t quite pinpoint.

‘But - Kiddo, are you sure?’ Patton tried not to sound upset, though it was harder to keep the confusion from his voice. ‘You seem a bit off, Stormcloud.’

‘It’s Virgil,’ the anxious side grumbled, then grimaced at his tone. ‘I-I’m sorry, Papa… _Patton_. Thank you for helping, but…’ He held his arms out for his clothes, still looking at the floor. His hands were shaking.

Patton wordlessly handed the pile of clothes over, not knowing what else to do. He watched dejectedly as Virgil rushed into the bathroom and slammed the door shut without another word. The lock clicked instantly and Patton took a deep breath before turning away.

As the sound of water running started in the bathroom, Patton wandered through the hallway, down the stairs, and into the living room, feeling disturbed by the interaction.

‘Patton, you can’t leave a toddler to bathe alone,’ Logan sounded mildly panicked.

He was sitting on the couch with Roman on the headrest behind him, braiding his hair.

‘He’s not regressed anymore,’ Patton said. Logan looked just as shocked as Patton felt.

‘He’s… But that never happens,’ Logan said, frowning.

Patton didn’t know what else to do except collapse wordlessly onto the couch beside him. He rested his head on Logan’s shoulder with a small sigh.

It wasn’t that he loved Virgil any less when he was an adult - he loved all versions of Virgil equally - but it felt unnatural for the boy to switch between headspaces so suddenly. It must have had something to do with the accident, but if anything Patton would have expected it to push Virgil further into his regressed mindset, not tear him out of it.

‘Is Virgil okay?’ Roman questioned.

‘Of course!’ Patton said in his usual bubbly voice, not believing his own words. ‘He’s just showering. Don’t you worry, little prince.’

‘But I heard crying before. What happened?’ Roman shuffled down from the back of the couch, sitting on the armrest and frowning over at both of them. When neither caregiver responded, Roman sighed. ‘I’m a grown-up now, you can tell me.’

‘Uh,’ Patton stumbled, pushing his face further against Logan’s shoulder as if he could hide from the question.

‘Nothing for you to concern yourself with,’ Logan said easily.

Roman huffed indignantly as he pushed himself off of the armrest and stomped across the room. He flopped into the armchair on the opposite side of the couch, pointedly facing away from Logan with his arms crossed. Patton couldn’t conceal his amused smile. Roman obviously wasn’t as grown-up as he claimed to be.

‘I care about him too,’ Roman mumbled. The pout in his voice was audible.

‘We know you do, kiddo,’ Patton reassured him. He felt guilty for making Roman upset, though he knew it was not a good idea to tell the creative side about what had happened. ‘You’re such a good big brother. It’s just… not polite for us to talk about Virgil without him knowing.’

Roman turned his body to squint suspiciously at them. After a moment, he seemed satisfied and smiled.

‘Okay. Do you like Mom’s hair?’ he asked excitedly.

Shaking off the brief shock from the sudden change in subject, Patton lifted his head from Logan’s shoulder to look at Roman’s handiwork. A braid circled the crown of Logan’s head, intertwined with a few daisies from the backyard.

‘Aww, how beautiful,’ Patton gushed.

He raised his hand to stroke along the strands of hair, twirling some loose tendrils around his fingertips. He wanted to comment on how soft Logan’s hair was but paused when he saw Logan’s shoulders were tense.

‘S-sorry,’ he quickly dropped his hand. ‘Should’ve asked to -’

‘No! No, it’s,’ Logan cleared his throat. Patton swore he could see a faint pink dusting his cheekbones. Logan’s lips twitched into a small smile as he briefly met Patton’s eyes before looking away again. ‘It is… acceptable.’

Patton dropped his head back to Logan’s shoulder, hiding his own blush. He didn’t miss the smug smirk on Roman’s face before he closed his eyes, pretending to take a nap.

A few minutes passed by with only the sound of Steven Universe playing on the TV, supplemented by Roman singing along with a musical number. After the ending credits song, Patton heard the TV click off followed by Roman’s whining protest.

‘We can watch more tomorrow,’ Logan’s voice rumbled through his chest and Patton breathed deeply with the comfort of it. ‘It’s nine o’clock so that means no more screens.’

‘Fine,’ Roman sighed, but Patton knew he wasn’t nearly as put out as he was trying to sound. ‘Can we listen to a book?’

Patton opened his eyes with a smile. It had become an almost nightly ritual for all members of the family to sit together and listen to an audiobook to wind down before bed.

‘Of course,’ Logan said. Patton loved the way Roman’s face brightened.

‘Yay! Ooh, can we have Paddington Bear? No, Winnie-the-Pooh! Oh, wait, wait, wait,’ Roman yelled, clearly getting bombarded by more ideas.

‘Hold on, kiddo,’ Patton laughed, ‘how about we ask Virgil to choose between those two? Then you both made the decision together.’

‘Yeah!’ Roman clapped his hands in excitement then something caught his eye outside the open door. ‘Virge, you’re back! You gotta help me pick a book!’

Patton heard a shuffling outside the room and lifted his head from Logan’s shoulder so he could hear better.

‘Oh, really?’ Virgil’s voice sounded soft and wobbly. ‘Uh, a-actually I’m suddenly tired. So, I-I’m probably gonna…’

‘Oh,’ Roman’s face dropped and his eyes followed what Patton assumed was a retreating Virgil. Roman turned a sorrowful look back on his caregivers. ‘Did I say something wrong?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Patton said honestly, just as confused.

He felt Logan nudge his shoulder and he looked to him in question.

‘I’ll talk to him,’ Logan said.

‘Thank you,’ Patton whispered and shifted to allow Logan to get up.

Logan offered a firm nod then quickly rose to go and follow Virgil.

Watching him leave the room, Patton sighed and hoped Logan would be able to figure out what was going on with Virgil better than he could. For now, Patton just focussed on getting that kicked puppy look off of Roman’s face.

‘How about we get some hot cocoa before your Mom can tell us off about it?’

oOo

Logan walked up to Virgil’s door and knocked gently.

‘Virgil? May I speak to you?’

He spoke quieter than usual, certain that Virgil would likely be in a state of distress from the incident in the hallway. There was a moment of silence before he heard a reply.

‘Yeah, sure,’ Virgil called through the door. His voice was distinctly uneven.

Logan heard a faint sniffling as he pushed the door open and was unsurprised to see Virgil sitting cross-legged on the floor in his softest pyjamas. Minty, his Triceratops plush, was clutched tightly to his chest. As Logan had theorised, Virgil did not look as grown-up as he had had Patton believe.

Logan closed the door behind him gently and lowered himself to kneel on the carpet a few feet in front of Virgil. He thought it was best to leave some space between them so that Virgil did not feel threatened in any way.

‘Patton tells me you’re not regressed anymore,’ Logan said. His doubt must have been obvious in his tone because Virgil immediately bit his lip and looked down to his lap. ‘Is this true?’

‘Dunno,’ Virgil whispered into Minty’s green fur. His voice was minuscule and Logan sighed.

‘Is this because of your accident?’

Virgil’s eyes went wide and welled up, his lip wobbling dangerously. It was all too obvious that he was in no position to have an adult conversation.

‘I don’t think you are grown-up, are you?’ Logan tutted gently. ‘How old are you right now, Virgil?’

The anxious side’s face crumpled and he hid behind his toy with a whimper. Logan quickly moved to kneel beside him, knowing he needed physical comfort.

‘No one is upset with you, I promise,’ Logan said, keeping his tone soft and quiet so as not to overwhelm him. He placed a comforting hand on the side of Virgil’s head and the younger side immediately leaned into the touch. ‘I know you wouldn’t lie to your Papa on purpose. You were just a little confused earlier, weren’t you?’

Virgil nodded into his toy.

‘Can you please tell Mama how old you are?’ Logan asked in his most baby-friendly voice.

Virgil slowly dropped the soft toy, looking up at Logan hesitantly. Eventually, he held up two fingers.

‘Only two? That is quite young,’ Logan said. He smiled encouragingly at Virgil and was happy to see the worry fade away from his gaze. ‘Much too young to be on your own. Do you want to come to listen to a book with me, your Papa, and your big brother?’

Virgil nodded and was millimetres away from sucking on his thumb before Logan quickly intercepted it.

‘Let’s get a pacifier for the baby,’ Logan said.

He patted Virgil’s hand then reached for the soft toy by their legs. He located the zipper sewn into the dinosaur’s back and opened the hidden pocket that was filled with various pacifiers. He held it open in front of Virgil for him to pick, and after a few seconds of deliberation, Virgil pointed to one. Logan took it out and held it in front of him.

‘Can you tell Mama what colour this is, Vee?’ he asked.

When Virgil was regressed, Logan liked to test him on simple questions such as this for several reasons: Firstly, it helped to establish a fun, educational atmosphere that Logan thought would be beneficial to his mental wellbeing. Secondly, it helped Logan to gather a clear idea of Virgil’s mental age at the time going by his speech and knowledge of certain things, proving beneficial to Logan’s understanding of Virgil’s regression. Lastly, it encouraged Virgil to communicate with him, which Logan hoped would be beneficial to their relationship.

‘Boo,’ Virgil muttered with a tiny smile.

‘That’s right, blue.’ Logan smiled back at him, knowing from experience it was an exercise in futility to try to correct his pronunciation.

He popped the pacifier in Virgil’s mouth without any fuss, then placed Minty back on the floor gently.

‘Light blue is your Papa’s favourite colour,’ Logan said. ‘Shall we go and show it to him?’

Virgil nodded and held onto Logan’s hand preemptively. Logan slowly rose from the floor and helped Virgil to do the same. He started to lead the way to the door but was stopped by Virgil tugging back on his hand and whining a little. Logan turned back in concern.

‘Is there a problem?’ he asked, then saw how Virgil’s gaze was fixed on the pile of stuffed animals on his bed. ‘Oh, I see,’ Logan said and walked them over to the heap of soft toys. ‘Can you choose a friend to come and listen to a book with us, Virgil?’

Virgil reached for his black cat plush and held it to his face with a smile, stroking the fur against his cheek.

‘Glad you could join us, Jiji,’ Logan greeted the toy and smiled when Virgil gasped.

Logan never made it obvious that he knew every single one of Virgil and Roman’s toys’ names. It amused him when they were shocked to hear him remember them so he kept up the pretence just to enjoy their endearing sounds of surprise.

Logan led both Virgil and Jiji back to the living room with a light heart.

‘Look who’s back,’ Logan announced as they stepped into the room and saw Virgil blush at the attention, hiding his face against Logan’s arm.

‘Aw, yay!’ Patton smiled brightly. ‘I missed my baby.’

Virgil looked up at Patton then pointed wordlessly to his pacifier. Logan saw a flash of confusion briefly cross Patton’s features.

‘Yes, that’s you,’ Patton said, obviously trying to guess at what Virgil was indicating.

‘Virgil picked his pacifier all by himself,’ Logan supplied with a surreptitious eyebrow raise. ‘Do you like the colour?’

‘Oh, yes!’ Patton said, suddenly understanding what Virgil had wanted to show him. ‘That’s my favourite colour, baby. It’s so pretty!’

Logan felt Virgil fidget under the praise. He shared a fond, amused smile with Patton.

‘Vee, you gotta choose between the two bestest bears ever!’ Roman yelled, all but bouncing in his seat.

‘Yes…’ Logan said but frowned at the high energy in the boy. He had not been so excitable when Logan left, so the logical side grew suspicious of what had caused the change.

Sure enough, his eyes landed on the chocolate coated rim of the Mickey Mouse mug in Roman’s hands. He gasped and shot a reprimanding look over to Patton. The moral side sunk into the couch looking as guilty as ever.

‘Patton, this is the time to wind down, not the time to consume sugar!’

‘But I made some for all of us, Lo,’ Patton countered. He indicated the coffee table where Logan’s NASA mug, Patton’s frog mug, and Virgil’s Jack Skellington mug all sat steaming, filling the air with the rich scent of chocolate. ‘Plus hot cocoa is technically warm milk, so it’s perfect for nighttime.’

Logan felt his reserve breaking when he realised how considerate it was that Patton had made some for everyone, but he remained steely. That is until Patton added with a sly smile:

‘I added a shot of hazelnut syrup to your one.’

Logan pretended to think it over for a few seconds.

‘Alright, I yield.’ He led Virgil over to the couch, encouraging him to sit beside Patton. ‘But Roman really should not be given dairy.’

‘Almond milk,’ Patton corrected with a victorious smile, accepting Virgil into his arms.

‘And Virgil is too young to drink from a mug,’ Logan added.

‘No prob, Bob,’ Roman cut in. He snapped his fingers and the Jack Skellington mug promptly transformed into a baby bottle.

‘Thank you, little prince,’ Logan said. He made sure to pay Roman due attention, knowing how important it was for Roman’s headspace to show that Virgil was not the only one who needed taking care of. ‘Where would you like me to sit?’

Roman’s eyes widened, apparently delighted that he was given such an important decision.

‘Over there,’ Roman pointed to the corner of the couch furthest from Patton. ‘Then I’m gonna sit next to you and Vee!’

Virgil hummed in content from his place beside Patton and nuzzled his face against his papa’s chest.

‘A very good choice,’ Logan said.

Before sitting down he moved over to the coffee table. He handed Patton the baby bottle and moved the frog mug to the corner of the table so it was within Patton’s reach. He nodded when Patton thanked him and grabbed his own mug, moving back to the couch to settle in the corner seat. Roman had already made himself comfortable, his mug empty and abandoned on the floor.

‘What will it be, Virgil?’ Logan asked. ‘A marmalade-obsessed bear from Peru, or a honey-obsessed bear from England?’ He took a sip from his mug and struggled to contain a smile at the warmth that radiated through his chest.

‘Nunny,’ Virgil mumbled through his pacifier.

Patton made an inhuman squeal of affection.

‘Honey,’ Logan echoed, unable to hide his smile now. It was undeniably adorable how Virgil’s speech was impeded by his regression. ‘Are we all ready for Winnie-the-Pooh?’

At the two shouted confirmations from Patton and Roman, Logan pulled out his phone to set up the bluetooth speaker. Within moments Stephen Fry’s voice filled the room with tales from the Hundred Acre Wood.

Roman clumsily wriggled his head under Logan’s arm to force it around his shoulders. Logan sniffed in amusement but acquiesced.

‘Do you want to hold the bottle yourself or do you want me to help you, sweetie?’ Logan heard Patton whispering during the introduction.

He looked over just in time to see Virgil pull Jiji up to hide his face. Patton’s eyes lit up and he giggled quietly.

‘Don’t be shy, baby. Papa’s here to take care of you.’

Patton gently took the pacifier from Virgil’s mouth and placed it on the armrest. Then he pulled Virgil onto his lap and held the bottle up to his lips. It was almost hypnotic seeing how quickly Virgil relaxed into Patton’s embrace, suckling rhythmically at the bottle. His eyes had fallen shut within seconds and a look of pure contentment settled over him.

Roman laughed at a part in the story and Patton looked up at the cheerful sound. He caught Logan watching Virgil and they exchanged soft smiles before Logan looked away again. Roman’s head fell onto his shoulder and Logan closed his eyes in contentment. He leaned back against the headrest, letting the sounds of the room blend into one calming symphony; Virgil’s suckling, Patton’s cooing, Roman’s giggling, and the narration sending him into a blissful sleep.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, kudos and comments are really appreciated!
> 
> You can also subscribe to this fic as well as the 'Little / Big' series if you want to be alerted when I update
> 
> Tumblr blog for this series: [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/)
> 
> (That's where I will talk about headcanons and ideas for new stories in the series, I also take requests ♡)


	2. Nighttime Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman doesn’t like bedtime, Patton and Logan discuss affection, and Virgil wakes up in the middle of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s a lot more logicality in this than I anticipated, whoopsy daisy - but the story still revolves around regression and the family dynamic!

The door to Logan’s room felt unreasonably heavy as he pushed it open with a tired sigh. He did not bother closing it behind him, instead letting it fall shut on its own in favour of immediately flopping face-first onto his bed. The door slammed shut a little harder than he would’ve liked and he winced into his pillow. Hopefully, the sound hadn’t been loud enough to reach either Roman or Virgil’s bedrooms.

Tonight both boys had been little right up until bedtime and so required both Patton and Logan’s help in getting prepared for bed. As was expected given Virgil’s clear preference for the paternal side, Patton had taken charge of his bedtime which meant Logan was left to handle Roman’s bedtime.

Hence Logan’s current exhaustion.

It had taken a great deal of effort to even convince Roman to change into his pyjamas, let alone to stop bouncing around as he rambled about a new idea he had for a game. Logan, of course, commended his creativity, though reminded him that they would have to wait until the following day to put it into practice.

Roman had not appreciated that. He wanted to play with Virgil at that very moment and was quite disheartened to hear that it was Virgil’s bedtime and his baby brother would be too tired to play with him. Learning that it was also his bedtime had been far more cause for concern for Roman. It had taken a multitude of bargaining on Logan’s part to get Roman to agree to get into bed. Even then, it still took some coercion to get him to stop complaining and at least try to go to sleep.

Bedtime had been at 10 pm. It was now coming up to 10:45 and Logan had only just been able to leave Roman, who was finally (thankfully) drifting off in his bed.

Logan flipped over on his mattress, mentally preparing himself to get up again and get ready for bed himself. Though an energetic knocking sounded at his door before he had the chance.

He lugged himself up from his bed and over to the door, rubbing at his face wearily.

‘Roman,’ Logan sighed as he opened the door, ‘if that’s you I don’t want to hear any more whining.’

Patton stood in his doorway smiling from ear to ear.

‘Patton,’ Logan greeted, sure that his relief was quite obvious in the way his shoulders sagged. ‘Is everything alright?’

‘Yes, gosh, everything's _amazing_!’ Patton near-squealed and Logan hurriedly beckoned him into his room. Patton seemed dangerously close to yelling and Logan did _not_ want Roman hearing it and then getting excited himself.

‘What has caused you such great elation at this late hour?’ Logan asked, feeling himself smile at the pure joy on Patton’s face.

‘You should’ve seen how cute Virgil was!’ Patton immediately gushed, and Logan was glad he had managed to close the door behind them quickly. ‘Oh my goodness, Lo. He was so sleepy and adorable! At first, he was nervous about being left alone, but then I switched on that star nightlight you got him and his face just lit up.’

‘Was that a pun?’ Logan narrowed his eyes.

‘I don’t even know anymore!’ Patton cried giddily, his eyes sparkling with happy tears.

Logan chuckled and leaned his back against the wall, sure that Patton was nowhere near finished.

‘Gosh, he was so happy,’ Patton said and started pacing quickly around Logan’s room, dispelling his excited energy. ‘Then I just sat by his bed for like twenty minutes stroking his hair and he was so calm then - oh my gosh - then he reached up and held my finger, Lo!’ Patton held up his finger in demonstration, his eyes wide with awe. ‘His whole hand wrapped around my finger, how friggin’ cute is that? Then he told me he loved me and he just fell straight asleep! Ahh, it was so adorable!’

By the end of his monologue, Patton’s voice had become so strangled and high-pitched that it was barely recognisable.

‘That does sound charming,’ Logan agreed, and couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous.

He was not in any way disappointed that he had taken care of Roman rather than Virgil. He was equally fond of both of them even if Roman did require much more energy to look after. Though Logan wished that Virgil would feel comfortable enough with him that Logan might experience something similar to what Patton had just described. 

‘It sounds like a positive bonding experience,’ Logan smiled stiffly.

Patton’s grin faltered. After taking a deep breath, presumably to calm himself from his excitement, he moved to settle beside Logan against the wall.

‘So… How was Roman?’ Patton asked.

From his careful tone, he apparently knew it would not have been such a simple experience getting the older little to go to bed.

‘Next time we’re switching,’ Logan said simply.

‘That bad, huh?’ Patton still smiled, though it was twisted by sympathy.

‘I… wouldn’t say bad, necessarily,’ Logan said. As much as Roman’s protests exhausted him, there was something in the whole routine that had brought Logan some comfort despite the stress. ‘Though it was foolish of me to believe that Roman could not possibly get more petulant.’

‘Poor little guy,’ Patton pouted, then looked to their feet in thought. ‘Do you maybe think his bedtime should -’

‘No,’ Logan interrupted. ‘We are not delaying his bedtime.’

‘But if he was so upset about it…’ Patton said.

‘It was a reflexive response more than anything,’ Logan replied. ‘I think he just wanted an excuse to act childish. Besides, as soon as I read him a story he went straight to bed. He was clearly just reluctant to admit that he really was tired.’

‘Aww, you read him a story?’ Patton asked in delight. ‘That’s so cute!’

‘It was a purely tactical approach,’ Logan said hastily. ‘Being read to in a quiet, soothing tone can trigger an autonomous sensory meridian response in the listener’s brain. It is a widely used technique to effect deep relaxation in both children and adults alike.’

‘Mhm, of course. Purely tactical,’ Patton agreed, though he did not sound convinced.

Logan’ gaze snapped onto Patton to find a knowing smirk being directed towards him.

‘Did you do funny voices?’ The mischievous lilt to Patton’s tone was hypnotising, and Logan could not resist his imploring gaze for long.

‘Maybe,’ Logan finally admitted.

It was impossible to keep a straight face when Patton burst into giggles like that.

‘Y’know, you don’t need to do that,’ Patton said after he had collected himself.

‘Do what?’

‘Pretend you don’t enjoy being Mama Logan,’ Patton said. His hand rested on Logan’s arm gently. ‘I know you love looking after the boys.’

Logan couldn’t deny it. Though even if he wanted to, the tingling warmth spreading from where Patton’s fingers touched him had rendered him momentarily speechless.

‘And the boys love having you as a Mama,’ Patton added.

‘Well, let’s not assume,’ Logan murmured. The grip on his arm tightened.

‘Logan.’ Patton’s voice was hushed and strained. ‘I’m not assuming anything. I know that they love having you as a caregiver.’

‘How do you know?’ Logan asked. The clear desperation in his voice made him squirm.

Patton’s gaze softened.

‘Well, in lots of ways,’ he said. ‘Just earlier, Roman couldn’t stop talking about playing Doctor Who with you yesterday.’

‘Yes, he was rather impressed by my Dalek impression,’ Logan nodded.

‘He didn’t talk about your impressions, silly,’ Patton chuckled, though Logan could not find it in himself to feel offended. ‘He talked about _you_. About how much fun it was to run around with you and spend the day laughing together.’

‘Oh,’ Logan breathed, feeling his heart swell.

‘And I guess Virgil _might be_ a bit of a Papa’s boy -’

Logan raised his eyebrows.

‘Alright, he definitely is,’ Patton corrected, ‘but I’ve seen the way he cuddles up to you when I’m not there.’

Logan wanted to accept it, he really did. But he could not ignore all of the facts.

‘As you have just stated, that is only when you are unavailable,’ Logan said quietly. ‘I fear - I _suspect_ that I am a mere substitute for his one true caregiver.’

‘Sorry, Logan, but you’re wrong this time,’ Patton said easily. ‘Do you know why Virgil felt so much better when I switched on his nightlight earlier?’

‘Because he is scared of the dark,’ Logan said. ‘They both are. Though I believe Roman’s fear is bordering on nyctophobia.’

‘No - well, yes,’ Patton conceded. ‘But Virgil’s salt lamp was already on.’

Logan frowned, perplexed.

‘Why would the nightlight make him feel better if it was not to counteract a dark room?’

‘Because it’s from you,’ Patton whispered and nudged his side gently. ‘The nightlight made him happy because it reminded him of his mama.’

Logan could not respond as his throat felt too tight all of a sudden. A smile tugged at his lips.

‘I know you don’t think so, but caregiving comes just as naturally to you as it does to me,’ Patton said. He leaned against Logan’s side slightly and Logan’s breath stalled in his chest. ‘Sure, we’re very different caregivers; you make sure they behave with rules and I probably spoil them with too many sweets. But just because I’m more cuddly than you doesn’t mean I’m a better dad.’

‘Thank you,’ Logan whispered, breathing deeply for the first time since the conversation had started.

‘Besides,’ Patton added cheerily, ‘you’ve been getting a lot better at showing affection with them.’ He paused, and Logan almost though he had finished speaking, but then Patton added in a more stunted tone: ‘And…’

‘And?’ Logan prompted, unable to tear his gaze away from how Patton chewed at his bottom lip.

‘With me,’ Patton whispered and met Logan’s eyes earnestly.

The hand which had been resting on his arm all of this time snaked down to wrap around Logan’s wrist lightly.

Pleasant shivers coursed through Logan’s veins at the contact and left him stunned. Patton’s fingers had been resting casually on his arm for most of the conversation, but this touch felt different somehow. The intent behind it was suddenly impossible to ignore.

‘Oh, shoot,’ Patton breathed, his eyes falling to the ground quickly, ‘I read this wrong, didn’t I?’

Logan floundered over silent words that would not leave his lips. Patton’s hand hastily snatched off of his wrist.

‘I’m sorry, I - don’t mind me,’ Patton chuckled, though it was shaky and forced. ‘I’m just being silly. I’ll leave, don’t worry about it.’

He had pushed away from the wall but did not get far as Logan hurriedly reached out to grab Patton’s hand. Their fingers intertwined on instinct. Logan’s cheeks heated exponentially.

‘Patton…’ he started but no matter how much he tried, he could not force his mouth to form any more words.

He realised that, for once, language could not effectively express all that he wanted to say. It was terrifying. But as he had taught Roman, sometimes it was more effective to show rather than tell.

He hesitantly moved forward, glad that Patton did not step away. It did not take much movement for Logan to be stood directly in front of him, certainly violating his personal space. Silence settled in the few centimetres between their faces. Logan thought he might be suffering from heatstroke. His palms were sweaty, his face burning and his head swimming as he impulsively closed the gap between their lips.

The kiss was achingly short. Patton’s lips barely ghosted over Logan’s own before the logical side was hit full-force with the realisation of what he had just done. He snapped his head back with wide eyes.

‘I apologise, I should not have done that,’ Logan blurted, feeling as though his tongue was inexplicably too large for his mouth. ‘I have no idea what came over me to think I could kiss you without asking for your -’

‘Logan?’ Patton’s free hand came up to cup his jaw and Logan’s mouth snapped shut.

‘Hm?’ he hummed.

‘Shut up,’ Patton whispered fondly.

Logan only had a brief second to see the spark of determination in his brown eyes before Patton pushed up and kissed him again.

Their lips slotted together so effortlessly, Logan thought they might have been made for each other. He breathed out through his nose, the warm air bouncing straight off of Patton’s skin and back onto his own. The heat was unbearable matched with the burning of his cheeks, but he could not consider pulling back. Patton’s lips were soft and slid against his own in such a mesmerizing dance.

A low sigh of content sounded in his throat and a muffled hum of agreement came from Patton in response. Logan could not contain a wide smile, and when Patton accidentally ended up kissing his front teeth they both broke down into breathy giggles.

Reluctantly, Logan pulled away from him by a few inches so that they did not accidentally butt heads in their laughter. Patton’s hand fell to his shoulder and Logan responded by curling his own fingers around the nape of Patton’s neck. Through his fingertips, he could feel the shiver that coursed through Patton’s body.

‘That was,’ Logan paused to gasp an inhale, surprised by how breathless he was, ‘highly satisfactory.’

‘I’ll say,’ Patton agreed fervently. ‘I wasn’t sure you felt the same way.’

‘I am not certain of what “way” you mean,’ Logan said cautiously. He, of course, had his theory but he did not want to risk being wrong about something so significant. ‘Your phrasing was rather ambiguous.’

‘Whoops, I guess my brain’s just a bit _frog_ -gy from the kiss,’ Patton said giddily, eyes brightening in the way they always did when he wanted to laugh at his own joke.

‘Ambiguous, not amphibious,’ Logan corrected, though he was somewhat glad for the Patton’s relapse into dad jokes. It was familiar and comforting and dispelled Logan’s anxieties about making an incorrect assumption. ‘I will hazard a guess at what you meant and be blunt: I harbour a romantic attraction towards you, Patton.’

‘Oh, thank goodness!’ Patton’s breath rushed from him.

‘I take it my assumption was correct,’ Logan smirked, but it was quickly swallowed by Patton’s lips.

They kissed for a long time after that. Logan’s legs grew numb, but neither of them made a move to sit down or change position. They barely allowed themselves to stop for breath, let alone something so unimportant as moving. The only matter of importance to Logan right now was kissing Patton.

Eventually, they slowed, pecking each other wherever they could reach between hushed words.

‘Did you notice Roman playing cupid?’ Patton asked against Logan’s cheek.

‘How could I not?’ Logan huffed in amusement. He kissed Patton’s eyebrow. ‘He wasn’t very subtle when his reason for braiding my hair was, and I quote, “to make you extra pretty so Dad will swoon and fall into your arms”.’ Patton snorted, interrupting the kiss he was pressing to Logan’s jaw. ‘I almost wanted to put him in timeout,’ Logan admitted.

‘Almost?’ Patton asked.

‘Well,’ Logan pulled back and looked at Patton with a smile curling one side of his lips, ‘his plan did work.’

‘Oh, I swooned for you long before that,’ Patton shook his head fondly and pushed a strand of Logan’s hair behind his ear. ‘I’m pretty sure Roman knew that already, though.’

‘He is frustratingly observant when it comes to romance,’ Logan said, stroking his thumb over Patton’s cheekbone.

‘Aw, he’s just passionate,’ Patton defended, then twisted his head to peck Logan’s wrist.

‘Even so,’ Logan sighed, feeling a pit in his stomach, ‘I dread the bombardment of invasive questions and interventions he would bestow upon us if he knew what we’ve been doing for the past -’ he checked his watch ‘- twenty-five minutes. Wow.’

He leaned forward to kiss Patton’s nose but Patton curled back as if burned.

‘You don’t want anyone to know, do you?’ Patton asked, and the hurt in his tone was unbearable.

‘That is not what I meant,’ Logan quickly corrected. He gently carded his fingers through Patton’s hair as the moral side often did with Virgil and Roman. ‘Please know, it is not that I wish to hide my romantic feelings for you. I’ve hidden them for months and quite frankly I am tired of it.’

‘Months?’ Patton smiled.

‘Of course,’ Logan said softly. ‘And while this is a welcome development, it is also a significant one that will have a profound impact on the whole household.’ Patton started nodding. ‘Roman will be rather intense in his support, possibly to a fault. As for Virgil -’

‘Virgil doesn’t like change,’ Patton finished, sounding resigned. ‘No, I get it. I don’t want to upset anyone.’

Logan pulled Patton’s hand up to his lips and kissed each one of his knuckles tenderly. Patton's breath shallowed.

‘I am certain they will be supportive when we do decide to tell them, but for now,’ Logan sighed gently and lowered Patton’s hand, ‘I believe it will be beneficial to our family dynamic if we maintain subtlety.’

‘It’s no problem, Lo,’ Patton shrugged with a smile. ‘I can be subtle, easy peasy mac and cheesy!’

Logan felt a little put out by how easily Patton had said that.

‘Well,’ he straightened his posture and focussed on not letting his disappointment leak into his tone. ‘Don’t sound so sure. It may be harder than it sounds.’

‘Nah,’ Patton said flippantly and Logan saw a cheeky smile pull at his lips. ‘You’re not _that_ irresistible.’

Logan’s mouth dropped open in offence and Patton started giggling under his breath.

So Logan swiftly ducked to Patton’s lips with the intention of proving him wrong.

oOo

Virgil gasped, his upper body flying up from the mattress. His breath came in short pants as he reached out in panic and grasped onto the first thing he could find. He frantically ran his trembling fingers over the object. Soft. Fluffy. _Real_.

He clutched Minty to his chest tightly and a shaky exhale rushed from him. He was in his bed, in his room. He wasn’t hurt, no one was hurt. He was safe.

His heart still pounded against his ribs and his head swam from the violent awakening, but he knew it would get better soon and he would be able to go back to sleep. Then he shifted on the mattress and froze.

‘No, no, no, no,’ he whispered in anguish as his stomach sank.

He hid his face against his toy. He didn’t need to be able to see to know that his pyjama pants and sheets were soaked through. He gritted his teeth against a wince at the familiar feeling of wet cotton clinging to his skin.

It never got any less upsetting when he wet the bed. He knew how to cope with it, of course. It happened often enough that he had a tried and tested routine that meant none of the light sides had ever discovered his embarrassing problem. He was at least relieved that he had thought to invest in an absorbent mattress protector when he first moved in. It saved him a lot of trouble. Though it didn’t exactly make this habit any less humiliating to deal with.

Virgil usually jumped straight into action when he woke up to wet sheets, working on autopilot to clean up quickly and quietly. But at that moment he felt stuck. His legs were locked in place and his lip began wobbling.

‘Papa,’ he heard himself whimper.

It was unexpectedly high-pitched and shaky and it jolted Virgil out of his haze.

He tensed and growled in frustration. What was he doing?

The hand that wasn't cradling Minty wrapped in his hair and pulled harshly at the locks. He didn’t need his papa, he had always dealt with this on his own. It was bad enough Patton had seen Virgil wet himself in the hallway 3 days previously, he didn’t need to see this too!

Virgil eased the tugging on his hair and instead started stroking it absently. But when he had an accident last time he got lots of cuddles and kisses and it made it less scary. And the next day Papa said Virgil needed to go and get him if it happened again. Virgil didn’t want to be a bad baby.

He felt his eyes burn with tears at the thought of dealing with his wet sheets all on his own, not getting any cuddles, _and_ being told off for it.

No, that wouldn’t happen! Virgil shook his head quickly, trying to make himself a grown-up. Why was he even debating the situation? He didn’t want anyone to know that he wet the bed, that was all there was to it. He wouldn’t get told off for not going to get his papa's help if Patton never even found out about this.

With Minty still cuddled tightly to his chest, Virgil threw the covers off and stood on shaky legs. He looked down to the sheets. The sight of the wet patch sucked all determination from his body and he started trembling uncontrollably.

He didn’t know what to do! The bed was soaked, his pants were soggy and cold, his skin was getting itchy, and there was a big, achey lump in his throat.

He sniffled and brought his thumb up to his lips. He felt yucky. With a gasp, he remembered Papa was sitting next to his bed when Virgil went to sleep. He quickly looked over but the spot was empty now. He turned in a big circle. He couldn’t see Papa anywhere in the room!

A whimper came from his throat and he hugged Minty tighter. The bright stars on the walls and ceiling made it a little bit less scary, but he still wanted his papa.

The yellow hallway light shone through the crack under his door and Virgil realised what he needed to do. He needed to go and find Papa all on his own.

He walked over to the door and opened it carefully, peeking out just in case Papa was waiting outside and wanted to surprise him.

The hallway was empty. He took a really deep breath. Monsters only lived in the dark so he shouldn’t be scared of the brightly lit corridor. He jumped out from his room and ran across the hall really, really quick.

He got to Papa’s door and knocked on it. Hopefully, he came straight out and hugged Virgil! He didn’t like standing on his own ever, but especially not in wet pants. They made him feel small and scared.

Papa didn’t come to the door and Virgil felt a sharp stab in his chest. 

He knocked again, a lot louder.

When there was no response Virgil felt some invisible force weigh down his mind so that he felt much more present in his body. Patton was an incredibly light sleeper, the slightest gust of wind would wake him up. Something wasn’t right.

Virgil quickly pushed the door open and flicked the light on. His eyes searched the couch and bed frantically, finding no sign of Patton. Then with a gulp, he dropped his gaze to scout for any lifeless heaps on the floor. Nothing. Images of Patton having hurt himself or worse during the night quickly dissipated from Virgil’s mind and he sighed in relief.

Then suddenly his head felt floaty like before, but there was a sinking feeling in his stomach this time. His adult ease was quickly replaced by childish desperation.

‘Papa,’ he whined to nobody.

Tears finally fell to his cheeks and he started sucking on his thumb. There were pacis in Minty’s secret pocket but he didn’t want to drop them everywhere because he was so shaky. Mama always wanted him to use pacis instead of his thumb, though.

He gasped around his thumb and turned to run out of the room. Mama could help find Papa!

He hurried to Mama’s room as quickly as he could and reluctantly took his thumb out of his mouth to knock on the door. He wanted to suck on it again but didn’t want Mama to tell him it was bad so he hugged Minty with both hands instead.

There were lots of shuffling sounds behind the door. For a bit, Virgil thought Mama wasn’t going to open it. Did he want Virgil to go away? He pouted at the thought but then the door was open and Mama was looking down at him with his eyebrows pushed together. His cheeks were pink.

‘Virgil, it’s past midnight,’ Mama said. ‘What are you doing up?’

Virgil didn’t know what to say and bit his lip. Was Mama mad at him? He looked at the ground. He didn’t want to see Mama if he looked angry.

‘Are you alright?’ Mama asked, and this time it sounded a lot softer.

He put his hand on Virgil’s shoulder. It was heavy and made breathing a bit easier.

Virgil looked up again and Mama didn’t look angry at all, so Virgil wasn’t so scared to respond.

‘Papa wasn’t there,’ Virgil whispered.

‘Why do you need -’ Mama started asking but then his eyes went down and his face changed.

Virgil realised he was looking at his wet pants and he quickly dropped his hands to hold Minty in front of himself. He didn’t like it when people looked at his accidents, it gave him so many butterflies that his tummy hurt.

‘It’s alright, little one,’ Mama said.

Then there was a weird squeaky noise from his bedroom but Virgil didn’t know what it was. The words Mama said put a fuzzy feeling in Virgil’s chest that made him feel less scared, but it also made him cry more. It was weird.

‘Did you try to find Papa after you had an accident?’ Mama leaned down to look in his eyes.

‘N-not in his room,’ Virgil whimpered and tugged on Minty’s tail with the memory.

‘Uh, well,’ Mama said quietly. He sounded a bit scared too, but not really the same kind of scared. ‘Maybe he is just… on a little trip?’

Lots of scary pictures of Papa never ever coming back played in Virgil’s head. His heart jumped really hard and hot tears filled up his eyes.

‘I wan Papa,’ Virgil whined. His chest got tight and then a sob hurt his throat. ‘Papa.’

There was a loud crash behind Mama and Virgil jumped. He saw Mama's closet door had burst open and then someone scrambled out from the shirts.

‘I’m here, baby!’ Papa yelled and jogged over to him.

‘So much for subtlety,’ Mama said really quietly.

Virgil didn’t know why Papa was in Mama’s closet but he didn’t care. Warm arms were hugging him and Virgil sniffled and buried his head in Papa’s shirt. The smell made him feel happy and made his head tingle.

‘It’s okay, sweetheart,’ Papa whispered and patted Virgil’s hair. ‘Papa’s got you.’

Virgil cried and held Papa’s shirt tightly in his fingers. He never wanted Papa to leave again!

‘Why did you say I was on a trip?’ he heard Papa whisper.

‘I panicked,’ Mama whispered back.

Virgil didn’t want Mama to panic. Panic was really scary. He pulled his head back to look at Papa. He wanted to ask if Mama was okay but he didn’t know how to and he pouted. Words were tricky.

‘I’m so proud of you for coming to get Mama when you couldn’t find me, baby,’ Papa said with a smile. ‘Now, sweetheart, can Papa please give you a bath?’

Virgil put his thumb back in his mouth and laid his cheek on Papa’s chest again.

‘It will be nice and relaxing,’ Papa said and his chest rumbled and made Virgil feel sleepy. ‘Then we can get you in some clean pyjamas and then cuddle for as long as you want!’

Virgil sniffled. It might be scary if Papa gave him a bath because he had to be naked, but he didn’t want to do it on his own and his skin was really itchy and burning now. And Papa said they can cuddle after!

‘Yeth peas,’ Virgil mumbled around his thumb.

‘Good boy!’ Papa said and it made Virgil’s tummy feel better.

‘Virgil, did you have an accident while you were awake or did you wet the bed?’ Mama asked.

Virgil felt his cheeks get hot and he hid his face more in Papa’s shirt. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about his bedwetting. He just wanted Papa to cuddle him and help make things better, he didn’t want to talk about it!

‘Honey, I need you to be really brave for me,’ Papa kissed his head and it made a happy noise come from Virgil’s throat. ‘Can you please be a good baby and nod for Mama if your bed is wet?’

Virgil didn’t want to nod but he _really_ didn’t want to lie, so he nodded. He didn’t like that it was quiet after he nodded. What if Papa and Mama thought he was bad and they didn’t want to look after him anymore?

He whimpered and hugged Papa tighter.

‘Shh, it’s alright, baby,’ Papa said and stroked his hair. ‘Thank you for telling us.’

‘Mama is going to make your bed for you, Virgil,’ Mama’s voice said right by his ear.

Virgil turned his head a bit on Papa’s chest and opened one eye to see Mama crouching down and looking at him. He didn’t look angry or anything, he looked friendly just like normal. But Virgil still felt a bit shy. He sucked his thumb more.

‘Do you want me to take Minty and tuck them in while you have a bath?’

Virgil looked down at the dino squished between him and Papa and thought for a bit. He kind of wanted to take Minty with him but he didn’t want them getting wet. Plus, if he had Papa with him then he didn’t need Minty to protect him anymore.

He slowly nodded and took his thumb out of his mouth so he could push Minty into Mama’s open hands.

‘Thank you,’ Mama said then stood up tall again. Virgil liked that Mama was really tall. It made him feel safe.

‘So…’ Mama said quietly.

‘Yeah,’ Papa said back.

Virgil was really confused. The grown-ups sometimes spoke in ways he didn’t understand. He didn’t really care though. Minty was held under Mama’s arm like a basketball and it looked funny. Virgil smiled then reached out to poke their nose. Fluffy!

‘Shall we continue our…’ Mama was even quieter now, ‘our discussion later?’

‘Sure, later,’ Papa whispered.

Virgil looked up and saw Papa smiling. He liked it when Papa smiled.

Mama started to walk away but then he stopped and walked back.

‘How could I forget,’ he said then lifted Minty.

It looked like he was tickling them for a bit but then he held something up. A paci!

Virgil lifted his head from Papa’s chest. He really wanted his paci. It was way better than his thumb.

‘Can you tell Mama what colour this is, little one?’ Mama asked nicely. It made Virgil’s head tingle.

The paci was dark and it had little glittery bits that were really pretty.

‘Sparky,’ Virgil said quietly.

Papa squeezed him a bit and made a funny sound.

‘It is sparkly, you’re right,’ Mama said and then he held it up to Virgil’s lips.

Virgil opened his mouth for it. When he felt the chewy smooth bit on his tongue he breathed deep in his nose and closed his eyes. Pacis always felt really nice.

He opened them again to try to say thank you with his eyes but Mama was already walking away.

‘Let’s go run you a warm bath, baby,’ Papa said and pinched Virgil’s cheek. It didn’t hurt, it was really soft and kind of tickly. ‘This is gonna be _soap_ much fun! Are you _bubbling_ over with excitement?’

Papa tapped Virgil’s nose and Virgil giggled and nodded. He wasn’t scared anymore!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baby Virgil was so challenging to write but so much fun! I really hope I captured Baby Brain™ well
> 
> As always, kudos and comments are really appreciated! Also, you can subscribe to this fic and/or series if you want to be alerted when I update
> 
> Tumblr blog for this series: [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/) ♡
> 
> I know the little prince was sadly missing from this update but don’t worry - Chapter 3 will be very Roman-centric ♡ I’m really excited to explore his character more!


	3. Roman's Remorse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil tries his best at a big kid game, Logan supervises, Roman makes a mistake, and Patton tries to console his little prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNING: There is a brief depiction of a panic attack in this chapter. It is from an outside perspective and does not go into too much detail.  
> Also, there is some insecure!Roman content, but there’s tons of cuteness to make up for it, I promise ♡

‘Come hither, squire,’ Roman called down the hallway. ‘The handsome prince awaits our rescue!’

Quick footsteps met his ears and, after a moment, Roman saw Virgil hurrying around the hallway corner. There was a large bundle of green fluff in his arms.

‘Vee, no,’ Roman groaned and threw his head back. Did this baby know _nothing_ about playing Knights and Dragons? ‘You can’t cuddle the dragon! We just defeated him, he’s supposed to be dead.’

Virgil pulled Minty closer to him and frowned at Roman. He was probably pouting behind his pacifier, too.

‘Don’t look at me like that,’ Roman narrowed his eyes at his brother.

It wasn’t very often that Virgil was able to play games with Roman. Being so young when he regressed, baby Vee didn’t usually have much energy and always liked to do stuff like nap and play quietly with his soft toys. Boring stuff that Roman wouldn’t be able to put up with for more than two minutes. Though that morning, Virgil had been in a rare, playful mood. Roman was never one to miss an opportunity, so he roped his little brother into playing make-believe with him.

But Virgil wasn’t really getting the hang of this game. He couldn’t keep up when Roman ran from room to room to escape their enemies (the roles mostly being filled out by their various toys). Then, when their enemies inevitably caught them, it was hard to defeat them because Virgil didn’t like hitting things - even if it was just pretending. If that wasn’t annoying enough, now he was cuddling their most recent kill!

‘Go put him back,’ Roman demanded and pointed down the hallway.

Virgil just whined and hugged the toy tighter.

‘Let him cuddle the dinosaur, Roman,’ Logan’s muffled call came from where they had left him in the living room. (He was the evil wizard whom Roman valiantly defeated a few minutes ago.)

‘But it’s meant to be a dead dragon!’ Roman yelled back.

‘Cubble,’ Virgil argued quietly, his eyes pleading with Roman.

Roman didn’t get why Virgil tried to talk with a pacifier in his mouth. It just made him sound silly.

‘Fine, whatever,’ Roman sighed. _Yes, and_ , after all. He tried to get back into character by standing tall with his hands on his hips. ‘Why, young squire, it appears you have adopted the dragon’s harmless, orphaned offspring!’

Virgil nodded enthusiastically and giggled.

‘And now we must scale this tower and rescue the prince of my dreams!’ Roman declared.

He pointed to the top of the stairs where his teddy bear, Aladdin, was slumped on the landing.

‘Thairs?’ Virgil lisped, pointing at the stairs.

‘No, _tower_ ,’ Roman corrected. Whatever happened to suspension of disbelief? ‘Come on, we’re wasting time! He’s gonna get bored and find another knight to marry!’

Roman started climbing the stairs on his knees and made an exaggerated effort to make it look like a gruelling task. He heard Virgil start to climb up carefully behind him and grinned. Virgil always followed him whenever they played together and it made Roman feel important. His baby brother copied him because Roman was older and bigger and braver and he would protect Vee from anything that might hurt him!

There was a small gasp and Roman whipped his head around just in time to see Virgil stumble off from the third step. He had apparently not wanted to let go of his toy while climbing and lost his balance. The regressor fell backwards and landed on his butt at the bottom of the stairs. It didn’t take long for his face to crumple.

‘Dad!’ Roman shouted quickly.

He wasn’t too worried about his brother being hurt; Virgil hadn’t fallen far or very hard. It wasn’t like he was a real baby who could hurt himself so easily. But he _was_ a crybaby. The sooner their dad got there, the sooner Virgil would quit blubbering, and the sooner they could go back to playing.

‘What’s up, my sweet spoonful of royal icing?’ Patton called, popping his head out from the kitchen.

The corners of Roman’s lips pulled up at the silly nickname. Though his smile dropped when Patton gasped, his eyes on Virgil who was now crying silently on the floor.

‘What happened?’ Patton asked, hurrying over to the sniffling boy.

‘He’s fine.’ Roman rolled his eyes and plopped down to sit on the step he was on. Dad worried way too much. ‘He only fell a little bit.’

Patton ignored Roman and kneeled on the floor beside Virgil, running his hands over Virgil’s head to check for any bumps. Virgil whined, trying to dodge the touch and reaching his arms out to him.

‘We can cuddle in just a sec, sweetie pie,’ Patton said.

When he inevitably found no injury he scooped Virgil into his arms. Roman’s heart sunk. It wasn’t that he needed a hug. He wasn’t the one crying, after all… But it didn’t feel nice being left out.

‘Poor baby, did you have a little tumble?’ Patton cooed.

Virgil nodded and buried his teary eyes on Patton’s shoulder.

‘Barely,’ Roman grumbled and rested his head on the banister with a pout. ‘Dunno why he’s crying about it.’

‘Any small slip is enough to trigger fear, Roman,’ Logan said, approaching from around the corner of the hallway. ‘Virgil clearly had a bit of a scare.’

Roman stayed quiet at that. He obviously didn’t want Virgil to be scared, but it happened all the time. It was hard to have fun when Vee kept getting upset every few minutes.

‘Are you all right, little one?’ Logan asked as he kneeled down beside the two on the floor.

The nickname made Roman frown. Since when did Logan start using terms of endearment? And how come he never talked to Roman like that?

Instead of voicing these thoughts, Roman instead opted to make an exaggerated gagging sound.

‘Roman,’ Patton scolded, ‘that wasn’t very nice.’

‘Mom never _used_ to say that stuff,’ Roman mumbled, picking at his fingernails.

‘How did you fall over, Vee?’ Logan asked, ignoring Roman completely. Roman grit his teeth.

Not crying anymore - _finally_ \- Virgil pulled his face off from Patton’s shoulder and pointed at the staircase.

‘Twower.’

Realisation dawned on Logan’s face. Roman didn’t like the way his mom looked at him like he had done something wrong.

‘Is this what you meant when you said you were climbing a tower?’ Logan questioned. ‘You tried to lead Virgil up the stairs?’

‘Well… yeah,’ Roman said quietly, not sure why it felt like he was going to be told off. Again.

‘Roman, you shouldn’t try to take Vee up the stairs on your own,’ Patton said gently. ‘You know he’s not very stable on his feet when he’s regressed.’

‘But what else could be the tower?’ Roman countered. ‘We can’t climb anything else.’

‘No, you can’t. But you must let either me or your Dad help Virgil up the stairs in the future,’ Logan said firmly. ‘Do you understand?’

Logan’s hand had rested on Patton’s shoulder while he was speaking. The three of them were crouched together on the floor now, all holding each other and looking like a perfect little family.

Roman saw red.

‘Yeah, I understand,’ he growled and crossed his arms. ‘I understand that you think I’m a bad brother!’

‘I never said that,’ Logan argued.

‘You’re not a bad brother, sweetheart,’ Patton said. ‘We just want you to be a little bit more careful in the future, that’s all.’

‘But it wasn’t my fault he fell!’ Roman cried indignantly. ‘He was still holding his toy, he should’ve held onto the handrail!’

Virgil whimpered when he raised his voice and Patton pulled the boy into his lap, shushing him gently. Roman winced at the reaction. He knew his brother didn’t like loud noises or arguments and Roman did want to apologise to him… but that would kind of ruin his whole argument.

‘We’re not saying it’s your fault, little prince,’ Patton said kindly. ‘Are we, Logan?’

‘Not… entirely,’ Logan hesitated. The glare Roman sent him was well-deserved, Roman thought. ‘Though it may prevent future injury if next time you instead ask one of us to help Virgil.’

‘He’s not hurt, though,’ Roman whined. Why did they think he wasn’t taking proper care of his brother? It’s not like Roman pushed him.

‘No hurp,’ Virgil babbled through his pacifier and held his hands up to Logan, showing that they were uninjured.

Roman felt a warmth in his chest at seeing his little brother stick up for him.

Logan’s posture softened and he reached forward to tickle lightly at Virgil’s palms with a soft smile. Virgil giggled and his hands retreated to clutch onto his dino toy again. It was kind of cool how Virgil got his voice to sound like an actual toddler’s, Roman had no idea how he did it.

‘You’re right, little prince,’ Logan said quietly.

He seemed to have cooled down a bit after playing with Virgil. Roman wished _he_ could get Logan to stop being grumpy so easily. He probably wasn’t cute enough.

‘Your brother didn’t hurt himself this time, but we don’t want it to happen again just in case next time he _does_ hurt himself,’ Logan explained patiently and Roman pouted at the thought. ‘Does that make sense, Roman?’

‘Yeah,’ Roman mumbled to his feet. He really didn’t want that to happen. ‘Fine, I won’t do it again.’

‘Thank you,’ Logan said kindly. ‘You are a very caring big brother, aren’t you?’

Roman looked up, feeling a spark of joy. Mom was smiling at him now.

‘Yeah!’ he agreed enthusiastically and darted back down the stairs.

‘Careful!’ Patton winced and held his hand out to him in case he fell.

‘No running down the stairs, either,’ Logan sighed.

When Roman reached the bottom he kneeled next to Virgil carefully. ‘Still brothers?’

Virgil nodded eagerly. Then he seemed to think something through for a second before dropping Minty and leaning forward to latch onto Roman in a tight hug.

Roman blinked for a moment then wrapped his arms around Virgil’s shoulders, sighing in relief. He always made sure to check they were still brothers after something bad happened, just in case Virgil changed his mind about wanting Roman as his big brother. He really didn’t want Virgil to change his mind. It wasn’t a nice feeling when brothers got split up.

‘Aww, you little cuties!’ Patton gushed and ruffled Roman’s hair.

Roman swiped the hand away with a grumble, but there was a slight giggle behind it. The movement caused Virgil to let go of Roman and he cuddled back into his papa. It didn’t bother Roman too much; everyone knew Patton gave the best cuddles.

‘I think you’ve both run around quite enough today,’ Patton said, wrapping his arms around Vee protectively. ‘How about we all have some quiet time together?’

‘But we didn’t finish my game,’ Roman pouted.

‘Sorry, honey. I don’t think this little baby is up to playing anymore,’ Patton whispered with an apologetic smile. He rocked Virgil slightly in his hold and the younger boy’s eyes shut instantly.

‘It appears your squire has been captured,’ Logan suddenly announced in a deep, airy voice.

Roman’s heart leapt in excitement and he grinned up at his mom. That was the evil wizard’s voice!

‘This… sleep siren has used his wily charm to incapacitate your little friend,’ Logan indicated Virgil who sighed sleepily and nuzzled closer to a very confused Patton.

‘So the evil wizard has returned from the dead! I thought I had bested you on the moors,’ Roman cried and leapt onto his feet and into character.

‘Foolish mortal, you cannot best the greatest wizard of the land,’ Logan replied very seriously and stood up swiftly. ‘I shall kidnap the handsome prince for myself.’

‘No,’ Roman whinged and stomped his foot. He wanted to marry Aladdin!

‘That wasn’t very knightly of you,’ Logan smirked. ‘You’ll have to do better than throw a tantrum to defeat me.’

‘Well… I secretly put some wizard glue on the floor before you got here,’ Roman said triumphantly, proud of his fast-thinking, ‘and now you’re stuck!’

‘I’m the greatest wizard of the land,’ Logan frowned, ‘I could easily -’

‘Logan,’ Patton whispered and shook his head up at him.

‘Fine… Ahhh,’ Logan cried monotonously, tugging at his leg which he kept firmly on the floor despite his best “efforts”. ‘My greatest weakness: imaginary glue.’

Roman laughed and scrambled up the stairs to claim the teddy bear.

‘I saved the prince!’ Roman cried to the people at the bottom of the stairs, holding the toy up in victory.

‘Hooray!’ Patton beamed and started very gently clapping - probably for Virgil’s benefit.

Virgil had apparently woken up slightly from the commotion. He copied his papa by tapping his hands together, giggling quietly.

‘Alas,’ Logan sighed, ‘I have been beaten.’

‘Evil has been defeated!’ Roman yelled proudly. ‘Now me and my prince can marry and live happily ever after!’

‘Kith,’ Virgil squeaked and pointed at him.

‘No, his name’s Aladdin,’ Roman corrected. What kind of a princely name was Keith?

‘Kiss?’ Patton repeated.

‘Oh, that’s right, Virgil,’ Logan said then smirked up at Roman. ‘Did you not say you would marry the prince, brave knight?’

‘Yeah?’ Roman frowned.

‘Well then, you may now kiss the groom!’ Patton giggled.

Roman looked between them and Aladdin and felt a blush warm his cheeks. It was suddenly a bit embarrassing to marry his teddy bear in front of his family. But they were all staring at him and clearly wouldn’t look away until Roman complied.

Well, he had to give his fans what they wanted… He shut his eyes tightly and pressed a quick peck to the teddy bear’s mouth. They all broke out in laughing cheers and Roman smiled shyly back at them.

Virgil nodded lightly and then dropped his head back to Patton’s shoulder. Roman guessed he was happy with how it turned out.

‘Mazel tov!’ Patton cried happily. ‘Or should I say _muzzle_ tov. Y’know, ‘cause he’s a bear?’

‘Congratulations to Roman and Aladdin,’ Logan said, ignoring Patton’s pun. ‘Now, I think that wraps things up rather nicely. Wouldn’t you say, Roman?’

‘Okay, fine,’ Roman admitted and walked back downstairs with Aladdin still clutched in his hand. ‘I guess my game’s done now. Thanks for playing with me Mom and Vee.’

‘It was my pleasure,’ Logan nodded much too formally.

‘Baby, do you want to say something to your brother?’ Patton whispered, jostling Virgil gently.

‘Wuvoo, Wo-Wo,’ Virgil mumbled tiredly without opening his eyes.

Roman’s eyebrows shot up. Virgil had never said that to him before!

‘Uh… love you too, Vee-Vee,’ Roman muttered quietly, twisting Aladdin’s fur between his fingers.

‘Ohmygosh,’ Patton squeaked, and his face was red with how much he was clearly trying to contain an outburst of emotion. He clutched Virgil tighter. ‘You - I - They -’

‘Alright, I suggest we move into the living room to watch a Disney film before your Dad figuratively combusts,’ Logan muttered to Roman.

‘Lilo & Stitch!’ Roman yelled instantly.

Virgil appeared to wake up at that and his head raised off of Patton’s shoulder like a meerkat’s.

‘Are you happy with that, sweetheart?’ Patton asked him.

‘Thich!’ Virgil babbled and started bouncing lightly on Patton’s lap. The moral side had to quickly tighten his hold to stop him from sliding off completely.

‘I’m quite sure that’s a yes,’ Logan chuckled and led the way to the living room.

oOo

The movie was well underway and Roman was splayed out on the carpet, his head propped on his hands and his legs kicking idly in the air. He sucked at the straw of his sippy cup happily, for once not adding his input to the movie. It wasn’t often he watched a Disney film without bouncing around in excitement, commenting on it constantly and reciting the lines to his favourite scenes. But this time he was pretty tired from running around so much earlier. (Though he definitely would have denied his exhaustion if either of his caregivers pointed it out.)

Virgil’s previous enthusiasm didn’t last for long either. His love for the movie had given him energy enough to toddle into the living room with the others, but as soon as Patton sat him down on the couch he had melted right into it.

Around half an hour into the screening, Roman heard something drop on the carpet behind him. He twisted his head to see Virgil’s pacifier had dropped right by his feet. Lifting his gaze he could see that it had fallen from where Virgil was now drooling into Minty’s fur, fast asleep.

Roman giggled. Silly baby! It couldn’t be that hard to keep a paci in your mouth. He crawled over to pick it up. His caregivers always gave him lots of praise when he helped to clean up after Vee.

‘Oh, thank you, sweetie,’ Patton whispered, holding his hand out for the pacifier.

Roman looked up to smile at him but paused. Patton and Logan were glued to each other’s sides, their heads resting against each other and their hands intertwined in Patton’s lap. Roman’s smile twisted into a knowing smirk.

Patton blushed and gently dropped Logan’s hand, while Logan cleared his throat and sat upright.

‘No problem, Padre.’ Roman dropped the paci in Patton’s waiting hand then winked at them both before turning away.

He crawled back to his place on the carpet and collapsed onto his stomach again. There was a heavy, sinking feeling inside his belly, though it didn’t have anything to do with the sudden movement. He felt unsure of himself after that interaction. Was it too grown-up of him to have winked at Patton and Logan? Was it weird or wrong that he still thought of them as Patton and Logan, and not just Dad and Mom? He picked at his fingernail.

Roman sometimes felt iffy about how easy it was to come out of his littlespace. His brother’s regression seemed so much more… real than Roman’s age dreaming. Even now, Virgil had just fallen asleep on the couch like an actual baby, but here Roman was teasing his caregivers because he could tell they were attracted to each other. Was a child even supposed to notice something like that?

He turned his attention back to the film with a sigh and did his best to fall back into his littlespace. He couldn’t break character like that again; Logan and Patton wouldn’t want anything to do with him if they knew he was just _pretending_ to be a kid.

‘Excuse me,’ he heard Logan announce quietly. Then there was some shuffling and the sound of the door opening.

Logan had clearly left, though Roman pretended not to notice. Kids weren’t meant to notice.

_‘I’m sorry I bit you… And pulled your hair… And punched you in the face,’_ Lilo said on the screen.

_‘Apology not accepted,’_ her rival, Mertle, replied. ‘ _N_ _ow get outta my way before I run you over.’_

Roman frowned at the film and rolled over to pout at his dad.

‘What’s wrong, little prince?’ Patton asked worriedly.

For a moment, it almost seemed like all of Patton’s attention was directed at him. But then Roman noticed that Patton had pulled Virgil’s feet into his lap and was stroking his legs softly. Roman felt a spark of jealousy in his tummy. It wasn’t fair, Virgil _always_ got cuddles and strokes; even when he was sleeping apparently!

‘How come Mertle doesn’t just say it’s okay and then play with Lilo and Stitch?’ Roman asked. He tried to insert enough childish confusion into his voice to garner sympathy.

‘Aw, sweetheart,’ Patton cooed. ‘That would be lovely, but it’s up to Mertle if she forgives Lilo.’

‘But Lilo is cool and nice and she apologised,’ Roman said, not needing to feign his confusion anymore.

‘She still hurt Mertle’s feelings, though.’ Patton absentmindedly ran his fingers over Virgil’s ankles, eliciting a happy hum from the regressor.

‘But Lilo is the hero,’ Roman argued, ‘and people are supposed to like the hero!’

Virgil whimpered quietly in his sleep and curled into himself a little.

‘Remember, quiet voices,’ Patton whispered with his finger held against his lips.

Roman copied the action and giggled quietly. It was fun to copy his dad.

‘It would be very kind of Mertle to forgive Lilo,’ Patton agreed, ‘but sometimes just because you say you’re sorry doesn’t make it better.’

Roman didn’t feel very good hearing that.

‘The most important thing is that Lilo did apologise,’ Patton said cheerily.

‘I guess,’ Roman muttered.

‘Patton,’ Logan’s voice suddenly called from outside the living room, ‘could you please assist me with… something?’

‘Do you think you can be a big boy and watch your brother for me?’ Patton asked, seeming excited for some reason. (Big Roman knew the reason. But little Roman shouldn’t have.)

‘Okay, Dad,’ Roman nodded, smiling innocently.

Patton very carefully lifted Virgil’s feet off of him and onto the couch, sighing in relief when he didn’t stir. He stood up from the couch but hesitated when he looked back down at the napping boy.

‘I’m gonna take really good care of him, I promise,’ Roman said, knowing his dad would be nervous to leave the baby. Maybe separation anxiety worked both ways sometimes.

‘I know you are, little prince,’ Patton whispered then reached down to squeeze Roman’s foot teasingly before quickly tiptoeing out.

‘Da-ad!’ Roman giggled, curling his toes away from the ghost tickles. He peeked over at Vee to check that his laughter hadn’t disturbed his little brother. Virgil was still deep asleep, so Roman turned back to the film happily.

A few minutes went by in peace. Roman did his best to giggle quietly at the funny training montage in the film, but soon lost out and was cackling at Stitch’s silliness. He heard a shift behind him, but Virgil didn’t cry or say anything so Roman just kept watching the film. Vee probably woke up then got too distracted by the movie to care about his papa being gone,

When Lilo pulled out her diagram of how bad Stitch was, Roman rolled his eyes at the screen.

‘Why do people always use red to show badness?’ he asked, then turned around to see Virgil. ‘Red is an awesome colour!’

Virgil was sitting ramrod straight and looking at him with wide eyes.

‘What’s wrong?’ Roman asked, frowning. Virgil usually looked sad if his papa left the room, but this time he looked scared in a different way.

Virgil’s mouth stayed firmly shut and he pulled his legs to his chest. It was very slow as if trying not to alert Roman to the movement. It didn’t work though, and quickly drew Roman’s attention to a big wet patch on the couch cushion.

‘Oh, shoot, did you spill your juice?’ Roman said and shuffled around so he could sit on his feet to get a better look.

He was confused to see Virgil’s sippy cup still half-full on the floor where he had left it. Then Roman looked back at the couch and his eyebrows shot up. Virgil’s butt and the top half of his jeans were even wetter than the couch. Roman’s mouth dropped open and he looked back up at Virgil’s reddening face.

Laughter rose in Roman’s chest. ‘Wait, did you -’ he snorted and covered his mouth.

Virgil sat frozen stiff.

‘Did you just pee your pants?’ Roman asked incredulously, his face stretching into an amused grin.

Virgil’s head shook rapidly, even as his hands clutched the wet cushion so tightly it looked about ready to tear open. It was the least convincing thing Roman had ever seen.

So he burst out laughing.

‘Oh my gosh,’ he gasped through his chuckles, ‘I can’t believe you actually -’ His amusement was suddenly drowned out by a choked sob. Roman was stunned into silence and sobered from his amusement instantly when he saw the look on his brother’s face.

Tears were dripping from Virgil’s chin and he looked completely horrified, shaking in his seat and hugging his knees tightly.

Roman’s blood ran cold. What the heck was he doing?!

‘W-wait, I’m sorry,’ Roman immediately said, voice shaky and completely devoid of humour. ‘I didn’t mean it, Vee!’

Why was he making fun of his baby brother? Why did he laugh at him? He scrambled to kneel in front of Virgil on the carpet, trying to make eye contact with him to show just how serious he was. Virgil shut his eyes tightly.

‘I’m sorry,’ Roman said quietly, ‘please don’t cry.’ He placed his hand on Virgil’s shoulder, trying to stroke him like Logan and Patton sometimes did. As soon as he made contact, Virgil flinched violently and his eyes flew open. He looked terrified of Roman.

‘I-I’m not gonna hurt you,’ Roman whispered because his throat was too tight to speak any louder.

Virgil just whimpered and hid his face against his knees. His shoulders shook as he cried.

‘I’m really, really, really sorry,’ Roman choked. As he listened to Virgil’s sobs, tears were quickly welling up in his own eyes. Why was he so mean? He was such a bad brother!

He was yanked out of his thoughts when he realised the sobbing had died down and mutated into shallow gasps. ‘Vee-Vee?’

The younger side was trembling all over and wheezing into his knees.

‘No, no, c’mon, you gotta breathe,’ Roman said desperately, his heart lurching. He tried to remember how Logan usually fixed it when this happened. ‘In and out. Just, um - I think four seconds in and then…’

The wheezing only got worse. Virgil’s hand flew up to his hair and pulled hard. Roman wanted to hold his hand and stop it, but he wasn’t supposed to touch Virgil when he was like this.

‘Please, _please_ don’t panic,’ Roman begged uselessly.

If Virgil had a panic attack now, it would be all his fault… Roman wanted to cry, but he couldn’t cry now! Virgil needed help, he didn’t need Roman to be an emotional mess. Roman’s own breathing picked up and he looked around the room frantically, as if their caregivers would appear out of thin air. He needed to find the grown-ups.

‘I’m getting Mom!’ he yelled and jumped to his feet. ‘Don’t worry, baby, we’ll be right back!’

He didn’t waste any time in sprinting out of the living room and down the hallway. He burst into the kitchen, panicked to see it empty. A quick glance out of the window showed the backyard was barren too. Roman growled and ran back out, ready to look for them upstairs. But then he noticed the laundry room door was shut. It was never shut.

He didn’t bother giving it any more thought before rushing over and kicking the door open with a loud bang.

‘Guys, quick!’ he yelled upon seeing them, then froze in shock.

Patton and Logan had been pressed up against each other and were clearly heavily making out. They quickly tore themselves apart at Roman’s entrance; Logan yelped and jumped away from Patton while Patton gasped and promptly choked on his spit.

‘I…’ Roman shook his head. This was not the time to worry about what he’d just walked in on! ‘Sorry to interrupt, but -’

‘What have we told you about knocking?’ Logan yelled, voice a pitch higher than usual as he fumbled to shove his glasses on his pink face.

‘That it doesn’t matter if Virgil’s having a panic attack!’ Roman shouted back, then darted out of the room, knowing they would follow.

His feet pounded against the floor, matching the pounding of his heartbeat. Each heavy step was accompanied by the voice in his brain that screamed _my fault, my fault, my fault!_

He burst into the living room and halted, knowing he should hang back until the adults knew what to do. Virgil was curled up tightly on the couch where he had left him, gasping in wet, uneven breaths that almost sounded painful. Roman’s throat ached.

‘Oh,’ Patton breathed when he ran in behind him. His eyes had clearly settled on Virgil’s accident. ‘Poor baby…’

Logan rushed past them both to sit by Virgil’s side on the armrest, and Roman took it as a cue that they were allowed to approach him. But when he tried to move forward, his arm was quickly tugged back. He whipped his head around to look at Patton in betrayal.

‘I just wanna help!’ Roman defended.

‘We can’t crowd him,’ Patton whispered, his grasp firm on Roman’s arm.

Roman felt nauseous with guilt. Of course they couldn’t crowd him. Virgil wouldn’t feel better if Roman went near him right now. He was being a stupid kid. He had to grow up!

‘Virgil, lift a hand if you can hear me,’ Logan said very clearly, making it obvious why he was the one in charge in these situations.

Roman looked over to them again and saw Virgil weakly raise a trembling hand.

‘Good, now I’m going to touch you,’ Logan continued. ‘Keep your hand raised if you do not want this.’

The hand quickly dropped back to Virgil’s lap and started fiercely clawing the wet jeans at his thigh. They all knew he did this to try to scratch the skin under his clothes. Logan immediately grabbed Minty from where they had fallen to the floor and pushed the toy into Virgil’s hand, effectively stopping his harmful behaviour. Logan’s hand rested on his back and his finger started tapping an even beat.

‘Ready to breathe with me, Vee? In, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four, five -’

Roman watched on helplessly as Logan attempted to get Virgil’s breathing back under control. The breathing that was out of control all because of Roman. All because he had laughed at Vee for something silly. All because Roman was a horrible big brother!

‘I’m sorry, Vee-Vee!’ he suddenly cried out, voice cracking. It was childish. No, no, no, he wasn’t meant to be little right now, he had to be big so he could help!

‘Not now, Roman,’ Logan quickly hissed, then immediately went back to counting out Virgil’s breaths.

Deep down, Roman knew Logan wasn’t really angry with him. He was just stressed about Virgil. He probably didn’t want Roman ruining everything all over again. But being told off made his tummy squeeze and he felt his lip wobbling.

‘Hey, it’s okay,’ Patton whispered and Roman felt gentle hands curl around his shoulders. ‘Why are you sorry, darling? This isn’t your fault.’

‘Yes, it is,’ Roman squeaked and looked down at Patton. Tears clouded his vision, but he still saw the look of confusion on his dad’s face. He squinted his eyes shut tightly, not wanting to watch it change into something worse when he admitted: ‘He wet himself and - and then I laughed at him. Then h-he wasn’t breathing right.’

The words were torn from his quickly constricting throat, coming out choked and shaky. He swallowed painfully around the lump in his throat, but a sob tumbled out straight after. Why was he crying? Virgil was the only one allowed to be upset at that moment.

He suddenly realised he was being gently led out of the room by his dad. He wiped his eyes and look back to check if his brother was okay. Virgil looked like he was breathing more normally now but Roman could hear his wheezing had turned into crying. Was that his fault again?

‘Let’s go to your room, little prince,’ Patton said quietly and gently pushed him out of the door.

‘You’re such a brave boy,’ Logan’s voice said behind them, muffled as they moved further down the hallway. ‘Would you like a hug, little one?’

Roman hated how jealous he was. He didn’t deserve to be jealous. He didn’t deserve a hug. As Patton ushered him up the stairs, he tried to keep a sob in his chest no matter how tight and painful it felt. He sniffled wetly.

‘Shh, good boy, nearly there,’ Patton soothed.

Roman nearly laughed. _Good boy_? After what he had done?

Once they were inside Roman’s room, Patton closed the door behind them and coaxed Roman into sitting on his bed. As soon as he sank onto the mattress, Roman’s resolve broke and hot tears rolled down his cheeks.

‘I’m sorry!’ he sobbed, then buried his face in his hands. ‘I didn’t mean it… didn’t wanna make him panic.’

‘Oh, sweetheart,’ Patton breathed, then there were gentle hands on Roman’s knees. ‘You’re not in trouble.’

Roman’s head snapped up from his hands. ‘What?’.

Patton got up from the floor and moved to sit next to him on the bed. ‘I know that you try really hard to be a good brother,’ he whispered and stroked his thumbs over Roman’s eyelashes to rid them of tears. ‘I’m not angry with you, little prince. But you do need to apologise to Vee when he’s calmed down.’

‘I will,’ Roman nodded enthusiastically. ‘I’m gonna apologise so much and -’ he paused in thought, ‘- and I’m gonna give him all of my toys!’

‘All of them?’ Patton raised an eyebrow and smiled.

‘Well… maybe not _all_ of them.’

Patton chuckled and shook his head. ‘You don’t need to give him any of your toys, darling.’ He opened out one arm, encouraging Roman to lean against him. Roman leaned slightly awkwardly to rest his head against his dad’s shoulder. He wasn’t sure why Patton was being so nice to him when he had been bad, but he wasn’t going to turn it away. ‘Could you please tell me why you laughed at Virgil?’ Patton asked gently.

Roman fidgeted with his hands. Why had he laughed? He hadn’t really thought about it before. He just thought people were supposed to laugh when someone wet themself. People always made jokes about that kind of thing. People at school laughed when Thomas had peed his pants that one time… but Thomas hadn’t liked that very much. The more Roman thought about it, the less any of these reasons made sense.

‘It’s supposed to be funny when someone does that,’ Roman said quietly. He thought back to the look of pure fear in Virgil’s eyes, the way his nails clawed at his jeans, and the way he gasped for breath. There was an empty, sinking feeling in his chest. ‘But it wasn’t funny.’

‘No, it wasn’t,’ Patton agreed softly, then he stroked a hand through Roman’s hair. It was a lot softer than the hair ruffles he usually gave him. ‘Virgil gets very scared when he has accidents, little prince. So it’s really important that we’re all extra nice to him when it happens.’

Roman was surprised. ‘It’s happened before?’

‘Yes, a few times.’

‘Is it ‘cause he doesn’t like going potty?’ Roman asked, childish curiosity winning out against any adult sensibility. He remembered a couple of weeks ago when Virgil didn’t want to use the toilet. If Virgil didn’t want to do that then obviously he would have accidents. But it didn’t make much sense to Roman. ‘How come he doesn’t just go to the bathroom?’

‘I’m not too sure,’ Patton admitted. ‘But your mom and I are trying to find out.’

‘Mom knows too?’ Roman pouted and lifted his head from his dad’s shoulder. He was being left out again. ‘How come I didn’t know?’

‘Boy, you’re a curious kiddo today, huh?’ Patton chuckled, but it was shaky and his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. Roman kept pouting and Patton eventually sighed. ‘Sweetheart, Virgil didn’t want you to know.’

There was a heavy feeling in Roman’s chest and his throat felt tight again. ‘Why?’ he croaked.

The arm around his shoulders squeezed tighter and his dad’s free hand reached forward to stroke his cheek softly. It felt really nice and tickly, but it didn’t make his next words any easier to hear.

‘He was scared you would make fun of him.’

Roman gasped. It felt like he had been pushed down a chasm. His head was swirling and his heart lurched forward. Virgil had been scared Roman would bully him, then that’s exactly what he had done... 

He felt his face crumple and he started crying all over again. He curled into himself and hugged his legs like he saw Vee do when he was sad. It didn’t help that much, though.

‘I-I’m a bad brother!’ he cried into his knees.

‘Oh, sweetie, no,’ Patton cooed sadly. ‘You’re a wonderful brother, Roman.’

Roman didn’t know how to respond, he was crying too much. Then there were warm arms around him and he was lifted a bit and pulled into his dad’s lap.

‘Shh. I’ve got you, little prince.’

Distantly Roman knew he shouldn’t be in Patton’s lap; Roman was bigger than his dad and he wasn’t a baby like Vee. He didn’t need to be coddled. But the way Patton was curled around him and rocking him made him feel a lot calmer. He collapsed against Patton’s chest and buried his face on his shoulder. It was warm and his tears stopped fairly quickly.

‘You made a mistake,’ Patton said gently. His chest vibrated as he spoke. ‘But you know now that you were wrong.’ Roman nodded dismally. ‘And I’m sure Virgil will forgive you when you explain that to him.’

‘Is he still gonna want to be my brother?’ Roman asked in a small voice.

Patton held him closer to his chest. ‘Of course he will.’

‘But I’m mean,’ Roman mumbled, wrapping his fingers in Patton’s shirt and fidgeting with the material. ‘He’s probably gonna hate me.’

‘He loves you,’ Patton said.

Those words made Roman tense up. His knuckles went white from how tightly he was clutching Dad’s shirt.

‘Are you sure?’ he whispered.

‘My little prince.’ Dad sounded sad. ‘We all love you.’

A big wave of relief washed over Roman. Two tears trickled down his cheek, but this time his chest wasn’t tight and his throat wasn’t clogged. His lips pulled into a smile as he sniffled into Patton’s shoulder.

A few moments went by before reality came crashing down on Roman and he wriggled out of Patton’s lap clumsily. It had been nice to cuddle for a bit, but he really shouldn’t have been acting like such a child at that moment. Being little was meant to be fun, wasn’t it? His littlespace was always full of games and toys and laughter, not tears and being rocked in Dad’s arms. He wasn’t meant to be a crybaby like Virgil.

‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, sitting back on the mattress and feeling a bright blush stain his cheeks.

‘What for, kiddo?’ Patton asked.

‘I don’t need to be little right now.’ He sat up taller, trying to look more confident than he felt, and sent a winning smile Patton’s way. ‘I’m a grown-up, you can go take care of Vee.’

Patton didn’t go, he just looked really confused. ‘Ro, you don’t need to be big if you don’t want to be,’ he said gently. ‘It’s okay if you’re little right now.’

Roman swallowed nervously, looking to his lap. That was the problem, he didn’t know if he was little! He could switch so easily between little and big, was he ever really little?

‘What’s up, peanut butter cup?’ Patton nudged him with his shoulder.

Roman didn’t reply. He couldn’t tell Patton. His dad would probably want to stop caring for him if he knew that Roman didn’t actually need it. He could easily do grown-up things for himself if he really wanted to, he wasn’t helpless like Vee was. Why would his caregivers stick around if they knew that? He felt gentle fingers on his jaw and his head was tugged up to look at Patton’s encouraging smile.

‘C’mon, you can tell your old man anything!’

Roman saw clear care and authenticity in Patton’s eyes. After everything his dad did for him, he at least owed Patton the truth.

‘I, um…’ He cleared his throat, stalling for time to gather his nerve. ‘I pretend to be a kid.’

The room was quiet for a few seconds and Roman’s gut twisted. That was it, Patton was going to leave him.

‘I know that,’ Patton said slowly, squinting at him suspiciously. ‘That’s kind of why we treat you like a kid and you call Logan and I Mom and Dad.’

‘No,’ Roman sighed dramatically. ‘I mean I don’t ever actually _believe_ I’m a kid. Like Virgil,’ he flung his hand out to the door to vaguely indicate his brother. ‘When he’s regressed he really thinks he’s a baby. He doesn’t understand grown-up stuff and he can’t colour properly or feed himself, right?’

‘Yeah, but -’

‘But I know I’m not a kid,’ Roman stressed, pointing at himself. ‘I’m an adult; I’m tall and ruggedly handsome and have a deliciously smooth baritone voice.’ Patton’s lips quirked in a smile. ‘And I never forget that. Even when I’m using sippy cups or playing pretend with Logan or colouring you a picture…’ He dropped his hands to his lap in defeat. ‘It’s just pretending. It’s all an act.’

‘Well yeah!’ Patton cried happily.

Roman frowned, doing a double-take. ‘Wait, what?’

‘We know that, sweetie,’ Patton giggled and pinched his cheek lightly. ‘Isn’t that why it’s called age-dreaming and not age-being?’

‘Th-then why do you and Logan - you and Mom look after me?’ Roman asked. ‘I don’t need to be taken care of, I could always do it myself. It’s pretty easy for me to switch between little and big.’

‘Just because it’s easy for you to be big doesn’t mean you have to be.’ Patton shook his head lightly and carded his fingers through Roman’s hair again. Roman leaned into it automatically. ‘And we know you don’t really need to be cared for - at least not as much as Virgil does - but we want to do it, sweetheart. We _like_ doing it.’

‘Even if my littlespace is kind of fake?’ Roman asked shyly.

‘It’s not fake, it’s just different from Virgil’s.’ Patton retracted his hand and Roman fought hard not to follow it. ‘If it makes you happy then it’s real.’

‘Oh…’ Roman breathed, then stayed quiet for a moment, letting the words sink in. He hadn’t really thought of it like that before. ‘But Vee is a cute baby and I’m -’ Roman flailed his hands around in place of coming up with an actual word.

‘And I wouldn’t have it any other way,’ Patton beamed. ‘Yeah, I get to cuddle Vee and bottle-feed him and it’s absolutely adorable. But I also get to play Kingdom Hearts with you and bake cookies together. And that’s just as fun!’

‘It’s super fun!’ Roman giggled, relaxing into his littlespace happily. Dad really liked taking care of him! Roman didn’t need to be big!

‘And don’t you go thinking that you have to be a baby to be cute.’ Patton held his finger up in faint warning. ‘You’re the most adorable little prince in the world, and don’t you forget it!’ He pushed his finger forward to poke Roman’s nose. ‘Boop!’

Roman snorted and pushed Patton’s finger away with a bright smile. ‘Daaad,’ he whined.

‘Whaaat?’ Patton matched his tone exactly.

‘I’m not a little baby like Vee, you can’t nose boop me and get away with it!’

‘You may not be a baby,’ Patton cupped his cheek and pressed a kiss to Roman’s head, ‘but you’re still _my_ baby.’ Warmth swelled in Roman’s chest. ‘Is there anything else you need, my sweet little prince?’ Patton asked, pulling back to look at Roman.

‘Um…’ Roman hummed, feigning deep thought. He knew what he wanted. The way Patton had held him and rocked him a few minutes ago had soothed him instantly, it was hypnotic. He already missed the warm feeling of being completely surrounded by his caregiver’s warmth; it had made him feel so safe and happy.

But he was a big boy, he wasn’t supposed to want to be treated like that. He literally just said that he wasn’t a baby and only babies needed to be rocked and snuggled. Plus, if he asked for a cuddle and was told he couldn’t have one, he knew that would hurt worse than just not getting one in the first place. So he asked for the next best thing: ‘Could I maybe have a hug?’

‘You could have a hug…’ Patton said slowly. His lips started curling in a mischievous smirk and Roman’s heartbeat picked up in excitement. He didn’t know what his dad had planned, but that look always led to something fun. ‘Or you could get a visit from the notorious Cuddle-Monster!’ he held up his arms ready to pounce.

Roman immediately descended into giggles and that seemed to be all the permission Patton needed. He launched at Roman and wrapped his arms around him tightly, tugging Roman’s head to his chest and pulling so that they both collapsed back on the mattress.

Roman wriggled in his hold, trying to escape (but not really). ‘Ahh, the monster has me in his cuddly clutches!’

‘That’s right,’ Patton chuckled. He held Roman closer and breathed deeply. ‘You can never escape the Cuddle-Monster.’

Roman’s eyes fell shut and he stopped fighting against the hold. He was smiling so hard his cheeks ached and he sighed in content, nuzzling his face against Patton. He could definitely see why Virgil wanted to do this all the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof this was a tricky one to write, I took my time making multiple drafts but I think I’m happy with how it turned out :) The next chapter was originally part of this one but it just got too long, so expect that to be uploaded soon!
> 
> Also, I have a question: Now that we’ve had a chance to explore all of the sides’ point of views - whose POV is your favourite? They’re all so different to write, I wonder how it comes across to a reader! I also haven’t decided on whose POV/s to use for the final chapter so I might take comments into account when I’m writing that ♡
> 
> I’m also now taking requests for this series on my tumblr [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/) so feel free to stop by!
> 
> See you soon ♡


	4. Bubbles and Babbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman is ticklish, Logan is only here for like 4 lines of dialogue, Patton gives his baby a bath, and Virgil finally opens up about his problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter picks up immediately where we left off last time!
> 
> Slight warning: Bathtime obviously entails some nudity. Nothing is described graphically and it is, of course, entirely non-sexual.  
> Also, there is some swearing in the second half of the chapter!

A few minutes passed by in comfortable quiet as Patton held his little prince. He had shuffled them both up towards the head of the bed and was now propped on several silk pillows with Roman cuddled up to his side. Warm breaths puffed against Patton’s chest as he gently twiddled a lock of Roman’s hair between his fingers. It was a far cry from their usual activities together (Roman, being so boisterous when he was little, was never willing to stay still for long). Though Patton suspected that his crying fit earlier had tuckered the poor little guy out.

‘You feeling any better, kiddo?’ Patton whispered, scratching his fingernails lightly over Roman’s scalp.

‘Apart from feeling absolutely devasted about my ruined hairdo?’ Roman replied with all of his usual impish energy.

Patton smiled. His little prince was back to his sassy self. He saw that Roman’s feet rubbed up and down on the sheets and his fingers fidgeted with Patton’s shirt; he was clearly becoming antsy. So what kind of Dad would Patton be if he didn’t up the stakes of their cuddle? ‘Oh, it’s like that is it?’

‘I do feel better though,’ Roman shrugged, completely oblivious to his impending doom. ‘Thanks, Dad.’

‘I don’t know this Dad you speak of.’ Patton hoisted Roman up by the armpits and wrapped his arms around his chest in a vice. ‘I’m the Cuddle-Monster!’

‘Dad,’ Roman whined, but there was a gigglish ring to it. He squirmed a little since Patton’s fingers were still under his arms. ‘You’re not the Cuddle-Monster!’

Patton almost squealed. This was too good an opening.

‘Aw, you’ve blown my cover, Ro,’ he sighed, glad that Roman couldn’t see his evil smile. That would ruin the surprise. ‘I’m not the _Cuddle_ -Monster…’ He suddenly curled his fingertips further into Roman’s armpits, earning him a shriek.

‘W-wait,’ Roman gasped between muffled giggles.

‘I’m the Tickle-Monster!’ Patton announced loudly and started wiggling his fingers.

‘Dahahad,’ Roman cackled, kicking his legs weakly against the mattress. Patton knew he wasn’t fighting hard enough for it to be genuine (Roman was scarily strong when he was really trying to be) so his fingers continued their ticklish attack.

‘Your Dad can’t save you now,’ Patton giggled, delighted to hear Roman snort in laughter. ‘The Tickle-Monster is your new father!’

‘Nohohoho!’ Roman cried dramatically through his laughter, writhing in Patton’s hold.

‘Yehehehes!’ Patton countered, copying Roman’s tone teasingly.

There was a loud rapping at the door and Patton reluctantly relinquished his hold on Roman. The boy hurriedly rolled off of him and clenched his hands under his armpits to protect them as he recovered from his giggle fit.

‘Saved by the bell-y.’ Patton poked Roman’s tummy.

‘Eep!’

He chuckled at Roman’s squeak and jumped up off of the bed, moving over to the bedroom door. Once he had pulled it open, his smile faltered.

Logan stood in the hallway smiling stiffly in greeting, though the look in his eyes was tired and almost pained. He had his arm wrapped around Virgil, who looked completely miserable.

The regressor’s cheeks were tear-stained and a pacifier bobbed in his mouth frantically. He looked up at Patton for a brief second before his eyes fell on something behind him. Virgil whimpered and quickly ducked behind Logan, hiding his face against his arm. Patton twisted to see Roman sitting cross-legged on his bed, looking at them and biting his lip nervously.

‘I’m going to take care of Virgil now, little prince,’ Patton whispered back to him and got a watery smile in return. As much as he felt he should stay with Roman, Virgil clearly needed him at that moment. ‘I love you lots,’ he reminded him.

‘Love you too, Dad,’ Roman said quietly, absently stroking his silk bedsheet.

Patton stepped out of the room and gently closed the door behind him.

‘Hey, baby,’ he whispered to the fluff of hair poking out from behind Logan, ‘do you want a hug from Papa?’

Virgil instantly rushed forward and clutched onto Patton as if his life depended on it. He started sniffling into Patton’s shirt within seconds.

‘Oh, sweetheart.’ Patton held his baby close and stroked his hair, swaying him gently from side to side.

‘He is understandably shaken up,’ Logan murmured, gently tossing something back and forth between his hands. Patton realised it was Roman’s teddy bear from earlier. ‘I managed to get his breathing under control and give him some water. Usually, I would recommend he lie down and nap after an attack, though there is the other issue…’ Logan’s eyes quickly darted down to Virgil’s pants, then back to Patton pointedly.

‘Got it,’ Patton whispered, then looked back down to Virgil, even if all he could see was a mess of purple hair. ‘Does my baby want a nice, warm bubble bath?’ he cooed, though there was no response. He looked up to Logan worriedly but was only met with a solemn nod. Logan seemed to be unsurprised by Virgil’s despondency.

Patton sighed and stroked his hand through Virgil’s hair once. ‘Let’s get you ready for bathtime, Stormcloud.’

The arms around his torso hugged tighter, but at least there was no protest. Still, Virgil’s lack of responses, positive or otherwise, was a little disconcerting. It was true that he was usually a quiet baby, but Patton had never seen him so defeated. Hopefully, some bubbles and splashes would cheer him up.

‘Should I, um?’ Logan pointed to Roman’s door.

Patton nodded. ‘Yeah, but maybe don’t talk about what happened,’ he added carefully. ‘I already had a word with him about it.’ Logan’s eyebrows raised in interest but Patton shook his head lightly. ‘I’ll tell you later. Just keep our little prince smiling.’

‘Duly noted.’

Patton turned his attention back to the trembling boy in his arms. He pressed a soft kiss to the top of Virgil’s head and murmured, ‘Time to go, sweetie.’

He then gently encouraged Virgil to let go of him, keeping his arm wrapped around his shoulders. Patton didn't dare to leave him without physical contact for a single second.

As Patton began leading them down the hallway he heard Logan open Roman’s door.

‘Are you mad at me?’ Roman immediately asked.

Patton stopped in his tracks, turning back to see what would happen. It was worrying to hear Roman so uncharacteristically nervous.

‘Yes. You have committed a heinous crime…’ Logan held Aladdin the teddy bear up in the open doorway, staring deadpan at Roman. ‘How _dare_ you abandon your husband on your wedding night?’

Patton huffed in half-relief, half-amusement as he heard Roman break down into giggles. Logan walked into the room and pushed the door shut, throwing a quick wink to Patton before it had closed completely.

‘Papa?’ Virgil squeaked and tugged on his sleeve. Patton quickly looked down at him, feeling his heart drop when he saw the distress in Virgil’s glossy eyes. ‘Wep,’ he whimpered quietly through his pacifier.

‘I know you’re wet, baby, it’s okay.’ Patton slowly raised a hand to Virgil’s cheek and smoothed his thumb over a dried tear-track. Despite the misery in Virgil’s voice, Patton was at least glad he was responsive now. ‘We’re gonna get you cleaned up, don’t worry.’

He started moving them towards the bathroom again, feeling guilty for stopping. His baby couldn’t have been very comfortable in wet jeans.

As soon as they were in the bathroom, he sat Virgil down on the closed toilet seat, rubbing his shoulder soothingly when he winced in what must have been discomfort.

‘Good boy. Papa’s only walking away for a few seconds, then I’m gonna come right back, okay?’

Patton quickly walked over to the bath, not waiting for a response. He was well-rehearsed in this routine and, as expected, Virgil started whimpering the moment Patton had stepped away from him.

'Papa's still here, sweetheart.' Patton spun the valves on the bath with practised ease then turned to search through the cabinet. The whimpers had died down, though he could see Virgil's worried eyes watching him carefully as he rifled through the various toiletry bottles.

‘What a brave baby,’ Patton praised. He selected the lavender bubble bath and poured a healthy amount into the steadily filling tub. As soon as he had put the bottle on the side of the bath he hurried back to Virgil and leaned down to kiss his head.

Virgil’s separation anxiety was not usually so intense that he couldn’t bear Patton walking away for a mere moment, though Patton had realised over the past two weeks that having an accident always made Virgil incredibly sensitive to being left alone. The poor baby seemed terrified of having to deal with his accidents all by himself.

‘We're gonna have so much fun,’ Patton said cheerily, trying to lift the mood in the room to make the next task easier.

The most difficult part of bathtime was getting Virgil undressed since the anxious side had a difficult time letting go of his self-consciousness. Though through messing around on one occasion last week, Patton had discovered an effective way of distracting Virgil from his anxieties, at least for the most part.

‘Okey dokey. Are we ready for the Hokey Cokey?’

Virgil nodded shyly - a watered-down version of his usual enthusiasm. Patton mentally prepared himself for a fussy baby but joyfully launched into song.

‘Ohh, you put your left arm in,’ Patton sang, lifting Virgil’s left arm. ‘Your left arm out.’ He pulled at Virgil’s sleeve until it slid off his arm. ‘In, out, in, out, you shake it all about!’ Patton linked their fingers and shook Virgil’s arm exaggeratedly. The sparkle in Virgil’s eyes told Patton that there was an adorable little smile hiding behind his pacifier.

Patton grinned. ‘You do the hokey cokey, and you turn around.’ He dropped Virgil’s hand and spun in a circle, swaying his hips in what Roman commonly referred to as “cringe-inducing dad dancing”. ‘That what it’s all about!’ Patton finished the verse with a small kiss to Virgil’s now-bare shoulder. Light giggles filled the room alongside the sound of gushing water.

‘What a cute little giggle,’ Patton cooed, before launching into the next verse, this time with the right arm. ‘Ohh, you put your right arm in…’ 

By the end of the verse, Virgil’s shirt was off and crumpled on the floor. He barely seemed to notice though, being so captivated by Patton’s silly performance.

‘Whoa, a hokey cokey,’ Patton sang with a bright smile, slowly pulling Virgil up to stand. ‘Whoaa, a hokey cokey.’ He tickled very lightly at Virgil’s neck and the boy giggled and scrunched his chin up. ‘Whoaaa, a hokey cokey!’ He poked Virgil’s belly button, which was met with a little squeal followed by muffled laughter.

‘Knees bent,’ Patton kneeled down in front of Virgil, making sure to keep eye contact with him as he kept singing and smiling. ‘Arms stretched!’ Virgil giggled, stretching his arms out to his side. Meanwhile, Patton very gently unfastened his jeans. ‘A rah, rah, rah,’ Patton sang and wriggled the wet pants down Virgil’s hips in time with the song.

Virgil’s smile dropped and he curled his arms back into himself. One hand went up to grasp onto the handle of his pacifier, tugging at it nervously as Patton pulled Virgil’s pants down to his thighs.

‘Well done, baby!’ Patton smiled, knowing not to draw attention to Virgil’s nervousness. ‘Ready for the next part?’

There was a brief moment of hesitation, then Virgil nodded jerkily, his eyes wary.

Patton reached out to hold Virgil’s free hand. It was mostly to help him keep balance, though he knew it offered the boy some emotional comfort too as he immediately squeezed Patton’s fingers.

‘Ohh, you put your left leg up.’ With help from Patton to keep him from falling over, Virgil lifted one leg while Patton peeled the wet jeans down it, ‘your left leg out.’ He squeezed Virgil’s hand in reassurance and beamed up at him. ‘In, out, in, out, you shake it all about!’ He wriggled the jeans and managed to tug them off of Virgil’s foot with some effort, allowing the regressor to stand on both feet again. ‘You do the hokey cokey and you turn around.’ Patton let go of Virgil’s hand and spun precariously on one foot, still crouching. Virgil giggled quietly. ‘That’s what it’s all about!’

He repeated the verse and dance moves again with the right leg, leaving the jeans in a wet pile on the floor with Virgil’s shirt. Patton stood up with a proud smile. ‘Aren’t you such a sweet baby today?’

He wasn’t exaggerating; given how emotional Virgil had been before, Patton was impressed they were down to his underwear and Virgil hadn’t shed a single tear about being undressed. It seemed the fact that they had done this ritual a few times now had made the boy much more comfortable with the task.

That, of course, didn’t mean Virgil wasn’t nervous at all. He was pulling at the pacifier handle so harshly that the plastic was creaking in complaint. Colour was high in his cheeks and Patton decided to move on quickly, knowing his baby must have been embarrassed standing in only his wet underwear.

He hummed the final chorus of the song as he turned off the faucets, the tub now being full of perfectly warm water and large peaks of fluffy bubbles.

‘And that’s what it’s all about!’ he finished dramatically, complete with a pirouette and jazz hands.

Virgil didn’t giggle this time being apparently too nervous, though his dimples were peeking out from behind the pacifier. Patton took his hands gently and guided him over to the edge of the tub. The regressor stiffened, obviously knowing what they had to do next.

‘It’s all right, Vee,’ Patton whispered. ‘Papa’s just taking care of you, isn’t he?’ It was met with a tiny nod then Virgil squinted his eyes shut in anticipation. Patton slowly released his hands and curled his thumbs under the waistband of his underwear. ‘We’re going to be super-duper quick, ready?’

Another small nod and Patton swiftly pulled down Virgil’s underwear. ‘Good boy,’ he soothed when he heard Virgil whimper. ‘Okay, big steps now, sweetums.’ He took Virgil’s hands again and helped him to step out of the sodden underwear on the floor and into the bath. Being very careful of how clumsy Virgil could be in his headspace, Patton gently lowered him into the bubbles, the water sloshing against the sides of the tub lazily as it accommodated him. 

‘All done!’ Patton cheered and kneeled down beside the tub.

Virgil finally opened his eyes, looking up at Patton shyly. 

‘Now we get to play!’ Patton cried excitedly. He picked up a handful of bubbles and blew into them so that they scattered and became foam confetti. Virgil was evidently still anxious from the experience, staying quiet and only blinking curiously at the bubbles. 

When that didn’t manage to cheer him up, Patton knew it was time for Plan B. He scooped up some more bubbles and put them on his own chin to make himself a beard. ‘Ho, ho, ho!’ he chuckled, jolly and deep.

Virgil’s eyes sparkled a little as he started to smile. He tentatively poked a mound of bubbles in front of him.

‘Do you know who I am, sweetheart?’ Patton prompted, glad that the anxious tension had dissipated.

‘Obim?’ Virgil asked. He was lightly batting at the bubbles now, successfully distracted from his nervousness.

‘Did you say Odin?’ Patton did his best to contain his giggle, not wanting Virgil to think he was laughing at him.

Virgil nodded hesitantly, suckling his paci faster.

‘Aw, you’re such a clever baby,’ Patton praised. There was no way he was going to tell Virgil he was wrong. ‘You’re right, I’m Odin. And who does that make you?’

Virgil gasped quietly and his eyes lit up. ‘Woki!’

‘You wanna be Loki?’ Patton wiped his bubble beard off on his t-shirt. There was never a bathtime when his clothes didn’t get soaked, anyway. ‘What about Thor?’

‘Wo-Wo,’ Virgil babbled, his tone indicating that he thought it was obvious.

‘Ohh, of course,’ Patton nodded, reaching over to grab a washcloth from the towel rail. ‘Ro-Ro can be Thor. Maybe we can do that next time we play pretend!’ He dipped the washcloth in the water then poured some extra soap onto it. ‘Okay, baby, I’m gonna start on your back.’

He shuffled over on the floor so that he was knelt behind Virgil and started washing his back. The tension gradually left Virgil’s body, his shoulders dropping more and more with each circle of the washcloth. Patton smiled softly.

By the time he had finished soaping up his back, Virgil was completely relaxed and he patted his hands against the water playfully. Every time the water sloshed or splashed he hummed and squealed in delight.

‘Is that a happy stim, Vee?’ Patton asked.

Virgil nodded fervently and started splashing the water again with more energy as if Patton’s acknowledgement had given him permission.

As Patton finished rinsing his back, Virgil slapped his hands against the bubbles a bit too hard and clumps of foam flew everywhere.

‘Whoopsy daisy,’ Patton sing-songed, not surprised as it had happened almost every bathtime previously.

Virgil shyly looked back at him with pieces of foam dotted around his face.

‘What a bubbly baby!’ Patton giggled. He picked up a small clump of bubbles from Virgil’s bangs then tapped them onto Virgil’s nose. ‘Boop.’

Virgil’s smile stretched past his paci and he giggled. The bubbles slowly trickled down to his lip. His smile suddenly dropped and he blinked slowly, scrunching up his nose.

Patton frowned a little in confusion, though still wore a bright grin. He looked so cute! ‘Are you okay, honey?’

Virgil’s reply was a little sneeze.

‘Aww!’ Patton cooed. It was a running joke in the house that Virgil sneezed like a kitten. His pacifier only made it all the more adorable. ‘Did the bubbles tickle your little nose?’

Virgil frowned and wiped his hand on his face to try to get the bubbles off - only to accidentally smear a big handful of them right over his pacifier and nose.

‘Ohoho, sweetheart,’ Patton chuckled, needing to lean on the bath as he doubled over with laughter. He found it hard to believe he had ever had so much fun before becoming a caregiver to the two most adorable boys in the world.

There was a desperate whine and Patton looked through tears of mirth to see Virgil looking at him pleadingly, the lower half of his face still caked in white foam.

‘Papa’s got it, don’t worry.’ Patton reached forward to wipe the bubbles away easily. ‘There we go. Now I can see your pretty face!’

He delighted at seeing Virgil’s cheeks flush. It was nearly impossible to get a non-regressed Virgil to accept a compliment, though he was much more susceptible to praise when he was little. Patton made a point to do it as much as he could while Virgil was regressed, wanting his little Stormcloud to understand just how amazing he was.

‘All done on this side,’ Patton said, swiping the washcloth over Virgil's back one last time. He shuffled over to reach Virgil’s front and got a better view of just how bright his little baby looked. His cheeks were rosy, his dimples were popping, and his eyes were wide in childlike wonder as he pawed at the bubbles again. Bathtime had apparently become an enjoyable little activity for him and Patton was ecstatic.

When he had first become Virgil’s caregiver, Patton had been so eager to get started that he had daydreamed about various adorable scenarios of looking after his baby. A notable fantasy had been one where he washed his baby lovingly while Virgil splashed around in too many bubbles. He couldn’t help it! Baby bathtimes were a mix of intimate caring, affection, and playfulness; the activity was a pinnacle of parenting. Though, at the time, he had never actually dared to imagine Virgil would be comfortable enough to share this experience together. But here Patton was, rubbing a washcloth over Virgil’s chest lovingly as his baby played with the bubbles. He really felt like the luckiest caregiver ever.

Patton was starting to get choked up, and he paused in the bathing to lean forward and press a firm kiss to Virgil’s cheek. The boy squeaked in surprise. When Patton pulled away he saw that Virgil’s smile was the biggest it had ever been. Patton’s heart swelled. ‘I love you, precious boy.’

‘Wuv Papa,’ Virgil babbled happily. Then he stretched out his arms toward Patton and proudly held up two handfuls of bubbles piled high.

‘Ooh, what are you gonna do with all those bubbles?’ Patton asked, taking the opportunity to wash under Virgil’s arms.

Virgil held the bubbles in front of his mouth and his cheeks puffed up as he tried to blow them - to no avail. Having a pacifier in his mouth obviously blocked the airflow and the bubbles did not budge. Patton saw the exact moment the disappointment filled Virgil’s eyes, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. He looked up at Patton and whined.

‘Uh oh, did it not work?’ Patton feigned his own confusion. It was both fascinating and adorable how Virgil truly had the mindset of a baby, not understanding something so simple. ‘Let’s try again, honey. Three, two, one, blow!’

He ducked behind Virgil’s line of sight and blew silently at the exact same time. The bubbles flew into the air and Patton gasped dramatically. ‘You did it!’ he cheered, looking at Virgil with a big smile.

In any other circumstance, he would have felt guilty for tricking Virgil. But the giggles that rang around the room and the way Virgil practically vibrated with excitement meant Patton would happily do it a hundred times over.

‘Now it’s tummy time,’ Patton announced happily. This was a tricky task too, though not in a bad way at all. Just in a squirmy way.

‘Here I come…’ he warned as he trailed the washcloth down Virgil’s ribs. The boy squealed and jerked, making the bathwater slosh dangerously close to the edge of the tub. Patton chuckled, ‘I have a feeling I’m gonna get very wet in a second.’

With a deep breath, he moved his hand down and swirled the cloth around Virgil’s belly. The regressor immediately started giggling and wiggling uncontrollably. Water lapped onto the floor and soaked Patton’s shirt and khakis. He couldn’t help but break down into laughter himself.

‘Is my baby ticklish?’ he teased, wriggling his fingers and beaming at the high-pitched squeaks that it caused. Patton would have loved to coax more adorable laughter from Virgil, but the boy was far more ticklish than Roman and couldn’t handle as much of the Tickle-Monster as his brother could. Patton lifted the washcloth away with one final poke, ‘Okay, sweetie. Your ticklish tummy is safe for now.’

He surveyed the mess on the floor. There was a large, bubbly puddle surrounding his knees. Seeing his own reflection looking back at him with a smile, Patton made a note to invest in an absorbent bath mat soon. (And maybe even some bath toys for his baby!) He grabbed a towel from the rail and stood up to lay it down, kneeling back on it once it had soaked up most of the spillage.

Virgil had calmed down from the tickling and was now holding a clump of foam up to the light, mesmerized. The light refracted through the bubbles, sparkling with all of the colours of the rainbow.

‘Can you see lots of colours, Vee?’ Patton asked, and knew this would be the perfect distraction for the final task.

‘Waybow,’ Virgil whispered.

‘That’s right,’ Patton said, squeezing more soap onto the cloth and lowering it to Virgil’s thigh. ‘Can you tell me some of the colours, little one?’

‘Lellow,’ Virgil immediately said, smiling up at Patton.

‘How pretty!’ Patton started scrubbing Virgil’s thighs, using his free hand to rest on his baby’s head protectively. ‘Any more?’

‘Burble!’

‘And purple too?’ Patton embellished his tone with excitement as he trailed the cloth further up Virgil’s thighs. ‘Can you see any others?'

Virgil had obviously sensed where the washcloth was going and hunched into himself a little. ‘Web?’ he whispered shakily.

‘Mhm, red. And whose favourite colour is that?’ Patton asked.

‘Wo-Wo,’ Virgil mumbled, tensing up suddenly as the washcloth brushed his hip.

‘It’s going to be okay, sweetheart,’ Patton whispered and stroked his hair soothingly. It was the only acknowledgement he would give to what was happening. He had quickly learned that if he didn’t make a big deal out of something, Virgil was less likely to. ‘Now can you try really hard to find your mama’s favourite colour?’

Virgil’s attention was redirected as he squinted at the bubbles and Patton swiftly moved the washcloth up to clean around his crotch. It was over within seconds and he was pulling his hand away by the time Virgil had realised what had happened. The regressor whimpered and pulled his knees up to his chest.

‘All done,’ Patton soothed and leaned over the tub to kiss his head. ‘It’s okay, baby. You were such a good boy.’

A quiet whine told him Virgil wasn’t quite over the distress of having Patton wash him in such an intimate place, but at least he wasn’t crying like he had been the first few times they had done this. Well - Patton noted the wetness in Virgil’s eyes - at least not fully.

‘Could you find Mama’s colour?’

Virgil sniffled and shook his head.

‘That’s all right.’ Patton threw the washcloth onto the pile of wet clothes on the floor. ‘Do you want to play some more in the water or are you getting sleepy?’

Virgil stared blankly up at him and said nothing.

Patton decided to make the question clearer for him and held up both hands in front of Virgil. ‘Do you want more bathtime,’ he waved his left hand, ‘or do you want naptime?’ he waved his right hand.

After a few seconds of his gaze flitting between each option, Virgil pointed at his right hand.

‘I think that’s a very good idea,’ Patton smiled and stood. Knowing how exhausted Virgil always was after a panic attack, it would not be long before he was too tired to sit upright. Patton picked up the wet clothes and towel and shoved them in the laundry basket then selected the biggest, fluffiest towel from the rail.

He turned back to the tub and smiled. Virgil had dropped his head to his knees and was blinking slowly. ‘It’s not naptime just yet, honey,’ Patton said quietly and reached out to Virgil’s hands to pull him up.

Virgil’s sudden exhaustion made him pliable, and there was little protest as Patton stood him up and wrapped the towel snuggly around his shoulders. It was large enough that it trailed down to his knees. No matter how often Patton saw his baby wrapped up in a fluffy towel with damp hair and sleepy eyes, the image was just as overwhelmingly precious every time.

‘Big step, baby.’ Patton carefully guided him to step over the bath edge and onto the floor. Virgil was wobbly on his feet so Patton kept his arm wrapped tightly around him as he unplugged the bath, then walked them out into the hallway.

By the time they had reached Virgil’s room, the boy’s head was leant heavily on Patton’s side as they shuffled through the door and over to the bed. ‘Okay, sweetheart, sit here while I get you some PJs.’

Within minutes Patton was lying on the bed with Virgil tucked up against him in his skeleton onesie. He wasn’t tired himself but he always stayed by Virgil’s side during naptime in case he woke up still regressed and panicked about being alone. That and he couldn’t get enough of his baby’s cute little squeaks and snuffles as he drifted off to sleep.

Virgil’s head was on his chest, and Patton’s fingers were combing through his hair slowly. He watched with adoration as Virgil’s body gradually melted into him minute-by-minute. The only sounds were both of their deep breathing and the gentle suckling of Virgil’s pacifier.

Then there was a babbled whine that was barely more than a whisper.

‘Did you try to say something, angel?’ Patton whispered, not wanting to interrupt the quiet.

‘No leab,’ came the tiny squeak. Fingers curled into Patton’s shirt.

A soft smile worked its way onto Patton’s lips and he massaged his fingers over Virgil’s scalp soothingly. ‘I’m not leaving, baby. Promise.’

Virgil was asleep within seconds.

oOo

Virgil slowly became aware of the world. His eyes were still closed, but he knew he was lying down on his warm mattress. He breathed in deep through his nose and moved his tongue experimentally over the pacifier in his mouth, frowning. It was kind of nice but mostly it just felt wrong. He blew out harshly through his mouth, causing the pacifier to shoot out.

‘Ouch!’

Virgil’s eye flew open.

He had failed to realise that the “mattress” he was lying on was, in fact, Patton’s chest. His pacifier had just shot at high-speed right into Patton’s hand.

‘Oh shit, sorry,’ Virgil quickly apologised.

It was met with a chuckle that shook Virgil’s body. ‘Well, I guess you’re not a baby anymore.’

Virgil blushed and pushed himself off of Patton, sending a little guilty smile to him. ‘Guess not.’

Patton’s responding smile was soft and adoring and Virgil had to look down to avoid melting into him again. He scooted up to lean against the head of his bed by Patton’s shoulder. ‘How long was I asleep?’

‘Less than an hour, I think,’ Patton said and hoisted himself up to lean against the headboard beside him. ‘Do you remember anything that happened?’

Virgil’s stomach twisted at the memory of Roman’s laughing face and he pulled his onesie sleeves down over his hands. How could he forget? He nodded once, not trusting himself to speak with a steady voice.

‘Do you think you could tell me exactly what you remember?’ Patton asked tentatively.

Virgil snapped his gaze onto him, chagrinned.

‘Kiddo, I’m not trying to embarrass you.’ Patton held his hands up in surrender. ‘It’s just that when you come out of your regression you don’t tend to remember all of it.’

Admittedly, Patton was right. Virgil sighed and dropped his head back against the headboard in exasperation. He hoped it hid how his cheeks were warming. ‘I, y’know, had a - an accident,’ Virgil forced the word through gritted teeth. ‘Then Ro was a jerk.’

‘Uh - okay,’ Patton sighed, clearly giving up on a reprimand. ‘Anything else?’

Virgil bit his lip and rolled his head on the headboard to glance at Patton for any hints. His shirt was visibly damp.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Virgil blinked. ‘Bathtime.’

‘Bathtime,’ Patton nodded and smiled down at him. Virgil’s chest was warm with the fond memory and he felt his lips pull into a small smile.

Bathtime had become one of his favourite things to do with Patton, even if it usually followed his least favourite part of his regression. It was always full of laughter and feeling loved and Patton singing to him and it was always just them. Plus, his papa never left him alone at bathtime.

When they had first introduced it to their dynamic that one night, Virgil had felt humiliated after coming out of his headspace (the fact that he had let Patton undress him was enough to make him splutter as an adult) but he had gotten used to it over the past couple of weeks. Now the feelings of comfort overcame any residual embarrassment.

‘Do you remember the panic attack?’ Patton asked quietly.

A cold, empty feeling washed over his whole body and Virgil curled his nails into his palms harshly. He had had a panic attack. Logan had helped him breathe, Patton had hugged him in the hallway, and Roman… had apologised. A lot. And cried.

With a gulp, Virgil realised maybe Roman hadn’t been as cruel as he first remembered.

‘Sorry,’ Virgil whispered. He felt awful for being such a burden on all of his family members.

‘Don’t be sorry, kiddo.’ Patton’s hand rested on his shoulder. ‘I know having panic attacks can’t be very fun for you.’

Virgil shook his head and then promptly dropped it to Patton’s shoulder without a word. He stubbornly refused to acknowledge his need for physical contact when he was an adult, but it was so addictive having the need pandered to so much when he was regressed that he couldn’t stop himself from seeking it out. Thankfully, Patton never said a word about it.

‘You’ve been having quite a few of them recently,’ Patton said carefully.

It was too obvious from Patton’s tone that he meant to keep talking about it and Virgil felt his shoulders tense up to the point of aching. He started scratching at his thigh through his onesie. They both knew why he was having more panic attacks recently; they always followed an accident.

Virgil stayed silent in the desperate hope that Patton would see that he was uncomfortable and drop it.

‘Oh, hey, could you maybe pass me one of your stuffies?’ Patton asked nonchalantly.

Virgil frowned and raised his head from Patton’s shoulder to send him a questioning look.

Patton’s face was far too innocent. ‘I just want something to do with my hands.'

Though sceptical, Virgil nodded and reached to the corner of the bed where he kept his soft toys. He grabbed the first one he felt and shoved it into Patton’s lap. A jolt of childish excitement coursed through him when he saw that it was Meeko, his raccoon plush. Not enough to trigger his regression, but enough to calm his nerves slightly.

‘Thank you,’ Patton said, though he didn’t move to pick it up.

Meanwhile, Virgil’s hand had not retreated from the toy in Patton’s lap and he ran his fingers absently over the fur, the scratching at his jeans long-forgotten.

‘So,’ Virgil started awkwardly. He didn’t think distraction would work this time around, but it was at least worth a shot. ‘Do you wanna go finish the movie or?’

Patton sighed and Virgil closed his eyes, knowing what was coming.

‘Honey, we need to talk about what’s been happening.’

Virgil huffed and turned his head away from Patton. He knew his avoidance of the matter over the past two weeks had to come to an end eventually, but he wasn’t ready for it yet. Though, would he ever really be ready to talk about his deepest insecurity?

‘I know you’re embarrassed,’ Patton said quietly, sympathetic, ‘but it’s affecting your anxiety. I don’t think we can afford to ignore it anymore.’

Virgil knew that. Of course he knew it, at least on some level. But it was so humiliating.

‘I don’t wanna have a big conversation about it,’ he grumbled, staring adamantly at the wall.

‘Okay, well then let’s not make it big.’ Patton’s tone was nothing but accommodating and understanding. ‘How about I just ask you some simple questions? You can even answer with just one word if you want to.’

Virgil’s dramatic sigh of defeat could have rivalled Roman’s. It was practically impossible to keep up his petulance in the face of such undying support.

Looking down at the plush in Patton’s lap, Virgil wrapped Meeko’s tail around his fingers. Well, it was as good a time as any. He nodded stiffly.

‘Great, thank you, Vee,’ Patton said sincerely. He took a deep breath. ‘Was it your first accident when I found you in the hallway two weeks ago?’

Virgil clenched his jaw. God, they were really having this discussion. ‘No,’ he mumbled.

A noise of surprise met his ears and Virgil quickly shoved the hood of his onesie up. It didn’t do much to hide his blush but it at least felt comforting.

‘I’ve been your papa for three months,’ Patton said, confused, ‘how did you hide this from me?’

The fact that Patton was keeping track of how long he’d been Virgil’s caregiver was heartening, and it made Virgil breathe a bit easier.

‘I guess I’ve had a lot of practice.’ Virgil pulled Meeko from Patton’s lap and held him to his own chest. It was obvious Patton hadn’t wanted the toy for himself, anyway.

‘Has this always been a problem?’

‘Yeah,’ Virgil sighed. He tugged on Meeko’s ears, still facing away from Patton. ‘B-but only when I’m regressed,’ he hastily added.

‘All right.’ Patton’s voice was gentle and kind. It soothed the fast pace of Virgil’s heart. ‘Do you know why it happens?’

The reasons were seared into his mind. Virgil had figured it out years ago, but it never got easier to accept them. They were stupid reasons. Reasons he couldn’t get his regressed self to shake no matter how much logic he applied to them in his adult mindset.

Virgil shrugged.

‘Virgil,’ Patton warned. It was quiet and soft and not harsh whatsoever. Still, it never failed to break Virgil’s resolve. ‘No matter what you say, I won’t be judgemental or upset. I just want to understand, sweetie.’

It was the nickname that did it. Virgil groaned under his breath and pulled Meeko up to stroke the softness against his cheek in comfort. There was no use in delaying it. He just wanted this talk to be over with as soon as possible.

‘I’m not very aware in my body when I’m… like that. I can’t feel it building up until it’s too late. And I couldn’t make myself go even if I could feel it because little me is scared of the stupid bathroom.’ He finished in a grumble, hating every word he had just said. Why was he so pathetic? 

Patton’s hand rested gently on his own and he realised he had been clawing at his onesie leg. He looked down and saw that he had abandoned Meeko on the bed, only for Patton to then pick the toy up and press it back into Virgil’s hand.

Virgil hesitantly peeked up at Patton through his bangs, forcing a tiny smile of thanks.

Patton smiled sadly and brought his hand up to Virgil’s cheek. ‘What is it that’s so scary about the bathroom?’

Wasn’t that a great question? As an adult, Virgil thought it was an utterly ridiculous fear. But apparently the regressed version of him hadn’t gotten the memo.

‘It’s stupid,’ Virgil mumbled.

‘Not if it upsets you,’ Patton added without hesitation. He was too supportive.

Virgil ran his fingers against Meeko’s fur. ‘I - I’m scared I’ll get trapped in there alone.’

‘That’s not silly at all.’ Patton laid his hand on Virgil’s back and massaged gently.

‘And I’m scared you’ll disappear when I’m in there,’ Virgil rushed to say under his breath.

‘But I would never -’

‘I know!’ Virgil snapped and clutched his toy tightly. ‘I know you don’t ever abandon me, I know it’s physically impossible for you to vanish, and I know it’s stupid. But,’ he shrugged exaggeratedly, ‘apparently, dumb baby Virgil is still terrified.’

The hand on Virgil’s back circled at a steady pace and his breath rushed out of him shakily. He slunk down on his mattress and laid his head on Patton’s arm, his whole body feeling like lead. It turned out having a panic attack and discussing your biggest secret on the same day was pretty exhausting.

‘You can’t be so harsh on yourself, Vee,’ Patton whispered, wrapping his arm around Virgil’s shoulders. ‘When you’re little you have separation anxiety. And Logan said you don’t really understand object permanence, either. So of course you’re gonna be scared when you can’t see your Papa or Mama.’

Virgil pouted and pulled Meeko up to his chin. That made a bit of sense, he supposed.

‘Can’t I come in with you?’ Patton asked. ‘Now that you’ve gotten used to bathtime, maybe it won’t be so bad.’

‘It’s not that.’ Virgil shook his head against Patton’s arm. ‘It’s shy bladder syndrome,’ he mumbled, praying to God that Patton knew what that was and he wouldn’t have to stumble through a definition.

Patton made a small, ambiguous hum then went quiet.

A couple of minutes went by and the only indication that Patton hadn’t fallen asleep was his hand rubbing up and down Virgil’s arm. Virgil thought Patton had finally had his fill of this conversation and breathed a quiet sigh of relief, letting himself relax into Patton's side.

‘And what about the bedwetting?’ Patton suddenly asked.

Virgil’s cheeks instantly flooded with heat and he pulled himself off of Patton with Meeko still nuzzled under his chin. ‘What about it?’ he hissed in exasperation. He’d had enough humiliation for one day (and for his whole life, really).

Patton either didn’t notice Virgil’s annoyance or chose not to react to it. ‘I’m pretty sure it only happens if you’re regressed before bed, right?’

Virgil really wished Patton hadn’t phrased that as a question. He dropped his hands to his lap so that he could observe Meeko as if the stuffed raccoon was the most interesting thing in the world. Sometimes he hated the fact that he hated lying. Silence didn’t exactly work in his favour when avoiding difficult questions.

Patton’s hand rested tentatively on Virgil’s head. His hood was gently pulled down and Virgil angled his face away from Patton. He needed to maintain some form of dignity in this, even if it was only small.

‘This isn’t just a regression problem is it?’ Patton asked knowingly. It was quiet. Sorrowful. _Pitying_.

Virgil gritted his teeth, his eyes burning as he stared at the wall.

Patton sighed. ‘Kiddo, you’ve got to talk to me.’

Meeko was stretched tightly as Virgil tugged on his tail without remorse.

‘Do you wet the bed often?’ Patton asked more clearly.

Something hot and dense filled Virgil’s throat.

‘Baby, please -’

‘Yes,’ Virgil growled, pained. He shut his eyes tightly, hating how such a simple nickname from Patton’s mouth had immediately sent tears to his eyes. 

‘Okay, that’s okay,’ Patton said delicately.

‘It’s not, though,’ Virgil whispered, then clicked his mouth shut at how broken it sounded. He pulled Meeko harder. Why didn’t Patton understand? It wasn’t okay. It was scary and embarrassing!

‘It is okay,’ Patton insisted. ‘How long has it been a problem?’

‘Years,’ Virgil mumbled miserably.

‘Virgil…’ There was the pity again. ‘Why didn’t you tell one of us?’

Virgil’s eyes flew wide and snapped onto Patton in disbelief. The older side seemed taken aback by the sudden heat directed at him.

‘Why do you _think_?!’ Virgil yelled hysterically, yanking Meeko’s tail harshly.

He heard a rip.

Virgil's heart stopped as he looked down to see Meeko’s tail hanging limply in one of his hands, completely torn from the rest of the toy.

The tears that had been steadily welling in his eyes finally spilled over and dripped down to the white cotton stuffing in his lap.

‘Oh, honey,’ Patton cooed sadly and wrapped his arms around him.

Virgil sniffled and threw the ruined toy to the end of his bed. ‘It’s fine.’ His voice was shaky and high-pitched.

‘It’s okay if it’s not fine,' Patton whispered.

‘W-whatever,’ Virgil choked, then broke down into tears a second later.

‘We can fix him,’ Patton reassured, stroking his hair. ‘Everything’s okay, my little Stormcloud.’

Virgil collapsed against him in defeat. He was too exhausted to be angry.

‘I’m sorry for pushing you.' Patton kissed his head. ‘We don’t need to talk about it anymore.’

A strangled whimper escaped Virgil and he quickly hid his face against Patton’s chest and clung onto him. He had gotten used to crying a lot recently due to his littlespace, but at that moment he could tell he was not regressed. He decided it hurt so much more to cry when he was big. It felt like years’ worth of embarrassment and loneliness and frustration and fear were all suddenly crashing down on him.

After a few minutes of being held by Patton, Virgil’s tears had subsided. His head felt a lot clearer after getting it out of his system.

‘Are you tired of dealing with such a crybaby yet?’ Virgil mumbled into Patton’s shirt, which was now wet from his tears.

Patton’s fingers carded through his hair gently. ‘I’m never going to be tired of being here for you, Virgil.’

Virgil’s lips pulled into a small smile, but it didn’t quite feel genuine.

‘Can I tell Logan everything you’ve told me?’ Patton asked.

‘Ha,’ Virgil laughed humourlessly, some unpleasant emotion swirling in his chest. ‘Sure. While you’re at it, how about you go and tell Janus and Remus too?’ His voice shook. Whether it was from anger, fear, or his tears, he wasn’t sure. ‘I’m sure they’d love to hear all about it.’

‘You know I would never do that.’ Patton sounded hurt and guilt flooded Virgil. ‘I’m not doing any of this to upset you.’

‘I - I know,’ Virgil whispered and pulled his head up from Patton’s chest to look at him apologetically. ‘Sorry.’

Patton shook his head lightly and cupped Virgil’s cheek. ‘You’ve been dealing with this on your own for too long. Mama - Logan and I want to help you.’

‘You do?’ Virgil asked meekly.

‘Of course,’ Patton nodded. ‘We don’t like seeing you so upset whenever you have an accident. We want to do something about it.’

Virgil’s heart leapt in excitement and he pushed himself to sit upright. ‘You can stop it from happening?’ he asked.

The glimmer of hope in his chest was quickly snuffed out by the way Patton’s eyes darted to the side to avoid his pleading gaze. His mouth opened and closed silently for a few seconds.

‘Well,’ Patton finally croaked then cleared his throat. ‘Let’s just - lemme speak to Logan then we’ll see.’

Virgil’s body slumped a little. He knew that tone. That was the same tone Patton used when he told Roman “maybe” instead of “no” to spare his feelings.

‘So will you let me speak to him?’ Patton asked again, looking at him expectantly.

Virgil bit his lip. What else did he have to lose? ‘Yeah, okay,’ he whispered.

The relieved smile on Patton’s face almost made it worth it.

Patton opened his arms wide. ‘Can I have a hug now?’

He hadn’t even finished his sentence before Virgil crashed into him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot tell you how much I squealed writing the first half of this. The tickling? Patton singing the Hokey Cokey? Virgil’s baby fascination with bubbles? I may be catering to absolutely no one but myself but I hope at least some of you loved reading it as much as I loved writing it!
> 
> Also, I’m sorry the last half got kinda sad. I keep accidentally making things dramatic, whoops. (Also I promise Meeko is going to be okay!)
> 
> The rest of the fic is going to be absolutely chock-full of the purest baby fluff! The diapers finally come into the next chapter and ahh I just think it’s gonna be adorable, I can’t wait for you guys to read it oh my gosh
> 
> Mandatory tumblr plug here: [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/) (I take requests for the series!)
> 
> See you soon, babies ♡♡♡


	5. A Little Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman mollycoddles his brother, Patton makes a suggestion, Logan is perceptive, and Virgil is brave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: This chapter addresses (and resolves) some negative self-talk with regards to age regression, as well as alluding to cyberbullying. Please proceed with caution if you are sensitive to either of these topics.  
> Also, there is some swearing in the first half - what else would you expect from adult Roman and Virgil?

Roman marched up the stairs armed with cookies, milk, and fierce determination.

The events of the previous day had left him wallowing in regret all night, and he was tired of it. No matter how much his caregivers had both made a significant dent in the cloud of guilt that fogged his mind, he could not stop replaying his own laughter in his head. He had been awful to Virgil the day before, and Roman had known he could not truly feel at ease until he had apologised to him properly and earned his little brother’s forgiveness.

He had been prepared to partake in all manner of valiant acts to prove his loyalty; he was willing to slay the Dragon Witch in Virgil’s name, to erect a statue in his likeness and honour, even to let Virgil get the first pick on movie nights for a _whole month_.

He had said as much to Virgil in the kitchen that morning. In response, Virgil had nodded, said “It’s cool,” and then left the room.

_It’s cool_?! Roman was quite frankly appalled by the lack of dramatic flair. Where were the tears? The arguments? The emotionally-overwhelmed collapse into Roman’s waiting arms? It had not gone as he had rehearsed in the mirror at all.

When Roman complained about this to Logan, the logical side had; 1) asked why Roman wanted Virgil to cry, yell, and/or faint, 2) reminded him that Virgil had forgiven him and had clearly done so in whatever way he deemed fit, and 3) told Roman to stop being so dramatic.

Needless to say, Roman was no longer on speaking terms with Logan.

Never one to give up in the face of a challenge, Roman had found Virgil in the living room and apologised again (an abridged version of his speech this time around). He received a small smile and thumbs up in return before Virgil went back to scrolling on his phone silently.

Once again, Roman was surprised. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be forgiven, but it had been far too easy. It was not satisfying. And so he continued to apologise throughout the morning whenever he saw Virgil - which incidentally happened a lot since Roman sought him out constantly.

It was around the fourth apology that Virgil had stopped smiling and nodding and instead simply rolled his eyes or walked past Roman without a word. Roman was wont to call it rude, but he couldn’t really comment on it given his behaviour a day before. The logical conclusion was that Roman’s courageous offers were simply not pleasing to Virgil.

Upon review, Roman begrudgingly accepted that Virgil wouldn’t necessarily care much about an imaginary monster being defeated for the hundredth time, or for a statue of himself given how self-conscious he was. As for the movie nights, Roman didn’t necessarily mind that he would still have the first pick on the films, so that really wasn’t worth complaining about. He realised he had to make his repentance more personal.

And what was more personal to Virgil than his littlespace? The boy adored it when Logan and Patton took care of him so (against all instincts) Roman resolved to prove himself through caregiving. As uncomfortable as it had made him when he had attempted caregiving all those weeks ago, it seemed the most effective course of action. And wouldn’t the fact that Virgil knew he didn’t enjoy it just prove Roman’s point even more? That he was willing to go above and beyond to show Virgil how much he cared about him, despite his own discomfort!

He had waited for Logan to disappear from the kitchen to load some cookies onto a tray, along with one of Virgil’s sippy cups full to the brim with almond milk. Now, standing outside Virgil’s room, Roman smothered the inkling of dread in his stomach and rapped on the door heartily.

‘Oh, Virgil,’ he sang, ‘Will you grant me entry to your kingdom?’

There was quiet for a moment and then, muffled through the wood: ‘Only if you promise not to apologise again.’

‘Damn…’ Roman whispered to himself, taking a moment to reconsider his plan. Well, he could still practice it without technically apologising. Years of improv work hadn’t exactly taught him nothing of adapting to unexpected situations. ‘All right, I promise,’ he yelled back confidently.

‘Fine,’ Virgil groaned and Roman lowered the door handle with his hip, being careful not to jostle the tray in his hands too much.

‘Greetings, Grumpy Space Princess!’ Roman called as he waltzed into the room with a wide grin.

Virgil was lying upside down on his bed with his head hanging off of the end, his Nintendo Switch held up in front of him. ‘What’s up, Princess Bubble-head?’

Roman smiled, appreciative that Virgil was a truly worthy opponent when it came to the Great Nickname Games. Though he did not let himself dwell on that for long and internally shook himself into his role, taking heavy inspiration from Patton.

‘Nothing much, kiddo,’ he said gleefully. ‘Just thought you might want a little snack!’

‘Kiddo?’ Virgil repeated, slowly lowering the game console from his eyes. Though they were upside down, Roman clearly noted the suspicion on Virgil’s features.

Roman continued smiling regardless, walking over to the bed. ‘How’s milk and cookies sound, Vee?’

‘But we haven’t had lunch yet.’

‘Yeah, don’t tell Logan,’ Roman whispered with a conspiratorial wink

‘Is this a trick?’ Virgil immediately asked. He squinted at Roman in suspicion. ‘What did you put in the cookies?’

‘Absolutely nothing and I resent the question,’ Roman couldn’t help but gasp in offence. As if he would stoop so low as to… what, poison Virgil? He had half a mind to turn back and eat the cookies himself. If only he weren’t utterly desperate for Virgil’s forgiveness.

‘Right, no, yeah,’ Virgil hurriedly backtracked, seeming humbled. ‘Sorry.’ Then the younger side sat up and spun his butt on the bed so that he faced Roman with his legs crossed. ‘Do you wanna…’ He indicated the other side of the bed in invitation.

Roman beamed. Clearly, this was the go-ahead for his plan.

‘Thanks, Stormcloud!’ He settled onto the bed beside Virgil, placing the tray in front of them both.

‘Thanks yourself for the cookies,’ Virgil smiled meekly. His gaze trailed over to the sippy cup on the tray and his eyebrows furrowed a little.

‘Anything wrong, sw-sport?’ Roman asked, cursing himself for chickening out at the last second. He had meant to call Virgil “sweetheart” as Patton so often did. Though while he was no stranger to using the nickname during courtships, it felt strange to call Virgil by it. Still, he had a role to fill and forgiveness to earn, so he couldn’t afford another slip-up like that again.

‘Nah, it’s cool,’ Virgil muttered and reached for the sippy cup. His movements seemed halted and his eyes briefly darted between the cup and Roman for a second before he sheepishly sipped at it.

Those words again: _It’s cool._ They infuriated Roman! But he took a steadying breath and pushed his irritation down. He had a baby to coax out, and anger would surely be counterproductive.

He reached forward for one of the cookies and snapped it in half, then held one piece up in front of Virgil with a smile.

Virgil frowned and lowered his sippy cup from his lips. ‘You wanna share one?’

‘No, silly!’ Roman giggled, putting all of the energy he usually observed in Papa Patton into his tone. ‘Are you ready?’

‘Ready for what?’

‘Here comes the cookie train!’ Roman sang, slowly pushing the cookie forward towards Virgil’s mouth. ‘Chugga chugga choo choo!’

Virgil’s eyes widened and his free hand flew up to grab Roman’s wrist before he had a chance to press the cookie to his lips. ‘I can feed myself!’

‘Oh…’ So apparently that technique wasn’t the way to go about it. ‘Apologies,’ Roman said. He pulled the cookie piece back and shoved it between his lips.

Virgil sighed quietly and reached for the other half of the cookie. He threw it into his mouth and munched on it as he pulled his Switch into his lap, resuming the game.

Meanwhile, Roman chewed thoughtfully. Perhaps Virgil wasn’t up for a baby headspace but would rather be a young child who was still able to feed himself. Though it was uncommon for him to be in a comparatively older regressed headspace, it wasn’t unheard of. And if Virgil was not comfortable with Roman feeding him, it didn’t automatically have to be the end of his plan. But what could Roman do to make it easier? What exactly was it that Patton did differently to be able to make Virgil regress in an instant?

Roman thought back to all the times he had witnessed it happening, quickly noticing a pattern. Patton always complimented Virgil (usually by calling him “cute” or “pretty” or “my little sweet and sour dumpling”) and touched him in some way (either with a nose boop or gentle tickles or head strokes). Roman would be a fool not to apply this knowledge, and a prince was no fool.

He decided to go about a subtle route, not wanting to startle Virgil again as that would probably hinder his regression.

‘Oh, that looks like a cute game,’ Roman said casually, pointing at the console balanced on Virgil’s knee.

‘You don’t know this one?’ Virgil asked, sounding surprised. He played with one hand as his other gripped the sippy cup.

Roman leaned closer, observing the colourful, animalistic characters who walked aimlessly around what appeared to be an island resort.

‘Ohh, is this the one with the capitalist raccoon who forces you to labour all day then takes all of your money?’

Virgil snorted. ‘He’s a tanuki, not a racoon. But yeah, essentially,’ he shrugged and tipped the sippy cup up to his lips.

Roman scooted closer on the mattress, trying to initiate casual contact. His thigh brushed Virgil’s and the other didn’t seem to mind it. With an internal hurrah, Roman initiated part two of his plan B.

‘Aw, is that you?’ he asked in a slight baby-talk voice, pointing at the chibi character on the screen. They had lilac hair and were sporting a rather intricate gothic dress. (For such a basic character design Roman was massively impressed by the attention to detail on the costume. He resolved to investigate it later as he had a job to do at the present moment.)

‘Mhm,’ Virgil hummed through a mouthful of milk then swallowed, ‘that’s me.’ He twiddled the joystick so that the character did a little spin.

‘Adorable!’ Roman gushed, and it was only half put-on (the game really did look sweet). Then he turned to Virgil, glad that their faces were mere inches apart. It would surely create intimacy and trust between them and hence spur on Virgil’s headspace. ‘But y’know what’s even more adorable?’

‘What?’ Virgil questioned, turning to look at Roman then freezing. A faint look of worry graced his features, though Roman assumed he was simply nervous about regressing around Roman alone. ‘What are you -’

‘This little Virgil right here!’ Roman smiled and wiggled his fingers over Virgil’s side.

Virgil broke into muffled titters. ‘S-stop,’ he stuttered, unable to get through the word without laughing. ‘R-Ro-ho-man!’

‘Aw, listen to your little giggles,’ Roman cooed, pushing an adoring tone past the strange heaviness in his chest. He just didn’t feel right doing this. But it had to be right, Virgil was laughing and smiling and had always enjoyed it whenever Patton did the exact same.

So Roman continued. He forced his own small laugh and doubled down on the tickling, jiggling his hand quicker over Virgil’s ribs. The boy squeaked and dropped his sippy cup to the mattress. (The cup was non-spill, gladly.)

‘No-ho m-more,’ Virgil pleaded through his giggles and pushed on Roman’s wrist firmly.

‘You can’t get rid of me that easily.’ On a whim, Roman went to poke Virgil’s nose with his free hand. Twice the contact probably meant twice the likelihood of regressing, going by his logic.

At the very same moment that his finger pushed forward, though, he must have unwittingly hit a sensitive spot on Virgil’s ribs because the younger side’s face unexpectedly lurched forward with a gasp. Roman’s finger ended up poking Virgil’s eye.

‘Ow!’ Virgil whined, shoving Roman’s hands away harshly. ‘What the heck, Ro?!’ He raised a hand to cover his assaulted eye while the other stared at Roman in shock.

Roman was stunned for a moment, feeling suddenly small. He had messed up again. He had hurt Virgil. Again! He just wanted their caregivers to make it better like they always did, but this was Roman’s mistake. He couldn’t always rely upon Patton and Logan when he accidentally hurt his brother. He had to learn to do it alone.

‘Shit, I -’ Roman clicked his mouth shut and shook his head. (Back into character, goddamnit!) ‘Oh, poor baby,’ he pouted in sympathy.

Virgil only looked more indignant, his hand lowering from his eye which was, thankfully, uninjured. ' _What_?’

‘Don’t worry little, uh, guy.’ Roman winced at his phrasing. ‘Uncle Roman will kiss it better!’

Roman started leaning forward, his hands held out in a placating manner - though they trembled slightly.

‘Stop!’ Virgil yelled, placing his hands firmly on Roman’s shoulders and keeping him at arm’s length.

A glimmer of relief flickered in Roman’s chest.

‘What are you doing?’ Virgil asked clearly, his expression a mix of confusion, irritation, and concern.

‘I - I’m trying to kiss your boo-boo better, kiddo.’ Roman attempted to smile, though even he had to admit his acting was no longer up to scratch. He was feeling jittery. This wasn’t right!

Virgil’s eyebrows raised and he offered no further response. How on Earth did he master those nuanced expressions so well? Roman almost wanted to ask for tips.

‘Fine,’ Roman sighed, throwing his arms up into the air as he dropped the act. ‘I kinda thought maybe I could babysit you for a while.’ Despite his words, he knew the pout on his face must not have commanded much respect.

‘I…’ Virgil paused, blinking slowly. ‘Princey, you hate caregiving,’ he burst out, incredulous. ‘I thought we established that weeks ago. And anyway you’re shit at it.’

‘Charming,’ Roman grunted, crossing his arms and diverting his gaze to the mattress. He didn’t need to be good at caregiving, he didn’t even necessarily _want_ to be good at caregiving, but he would be damned if he actually admitted to being bad at something.

‘Why are you babying me all of a sudden?’ Virgil’s voice was softer now.

‘I just wanted to make up for yesterday!’ Roman cracked, though he was conscious to not outright yell, knowing Virgil’s sensitivity to loud noises would not do him any favours. ‘I want to prove to you that I’m sorry about what I did, but you barely acknowledged my other apologies,’ he explained, annoyance seeping into his tone. Virgil’s eyes dropped to his lap. ‘And you obviously didn’t care for my other ideas for acts of chivalry, so -’ he flailed his arms around in frustration ‘- I’m making do!’

The silence in the room somehow rang louder than Roman’s outburst, and he felt a knot of embarrassment start to clench his stomach.

Before it had time to grow any bigger, Virgil spoke up: ‘I’m sorry.’

‘What?’ Roman frowned and looked back up to him. Virgil looked horribly guilty. ‘No, I think you’re confused. I’m here so that _I_ can apologise.’

‘Yeah, I got that.’ Virgil’s lips pulled into a small smile, then it dropped again. ‘Listen… I’m sorry for being kind of flippant earlier.’ He looked down, shrugging his shoulders up to his neck and holding them there. ‘I do forgive you, I just -’ he paused and Roman noted his cheeks had turned rosy. ‘I just didn’t want us to make such a big deal out of what happened, y’know?’

‘Oh…’ Roman breathed. This type of forgiveness was unexpected (not unlike anything else that had happened that day, so really shouldn’t he have expected it to be unexpected?) but nonetheless acceptable. If Virgil truly did forgive him then that should have been enough for Roman.

‘I mean thank you for apologising. Like, twenty times,’ Virgil said hastily, clearly noticing Roman’s surprise. ‘I do appreciate it - even if I never want to experience “Uncle Roman” ever again in my life.’ He looked back up at Roman shyly, ‘But can we please just pretend it didn’t happen?’

‘Uh, yeah. Sure. It - it’s cool,’ Roman replied with a weak nod, distracted by the persistent emptiness in his chest. 

Virgil bumped their knees together amiably then went back to his game.

After a minute or so of the controller clicking and the cutesy music blaring from the small speaker, Roman realised he was still unsettled by the situation. He communicated this to Virgil in the most effective way he knew how: by groaning loudly and forlornly.

‘What is it?’ Virgil asked in his most dramatic, long-suffering whine. It was a little teasing quirk they had picked up together that was entirely well-intended. The familiarity of it made Roman feel somewhat better about admitting the issue.

‘It’s just this niggling feeling, you know?’ he asked, fully aware that Virgil did not know. ‘I have to do _something._ I have the rich blue blood of a prince, for heaven’s sake.’ His eyes wandered around the room as if looking for a solution to his lament. ‘If I cannot defeat a villain in your honour or commit some other brave, valiant act of -’

He paused abruptly as his eyes settled on something. A stuffed raccoon lay abandoned on the floor by Virgil’s bed, torn in two. Roman was sure he remembered Virgil naming it Meeko, after his beloved character from Pocahontas.

‘Dear Zeus, I believe I have it!’ Roman cried triumphantly.

Virgil startled at the sudden noise and Roman turned to him with an apologetic smile. The emo only looked vaguely miffed.

‘Glad you’ve reached a solution, but do you think you could have a dramatic epiphany elsewhere?’ Virgil mumbled, eyes flitting back to his screen. ‘I have debts to pay here.’

Normally it would have annoyed him to be pushed aside for no more than a video game, but luckily for Virgil, Roman had a new job to do. He just needed to sneak Meeko out unnoticed.

‘I thought you said you paid off your debts last week,’ Roman said easily, subtly dropping his leg over the edge of the bed.

‘Yeah, but now I have more,’ Virgil shrugged, unaware of Roman’s movements. ‘It’s kind of a constant in this game.’

Roman hooked his socked toes around one half of the plush on the floor and silently dragged it closer. ‘Doesn’t living in constant debt stress you out though?’ He hooked his toes around the other piece of the toy, looking carefully out of the corner of his eye.

‘It’s actually super chill. You, like, go fishing and catch bugs and stuff.’ Virgil carried on talking, though Roman’s attention was quite preoccupied. ‘And you meet these animals and invite them to your island. You’d like them, they’re really sassy.’

‘Uhuh, uhuh,’ Roman hummed noncommittally, slowly inching his hand down to grab the stuffie pieces and trying to act as if he was just itching his leg.

‘You plant flowers and craft furniture and stuff. Then there’s this cool museum.’

Roman hurriedly stuffed the plushie pieces inside his jacket, masking the movement with a cough. He hazarded a glance to Virgil, glad to see that he was completely enraptured by the game, seemingly unaware of anything that was not pixelated.

‘You can design your own clothes too, look.’ Virgil pushed the screen in front of Roman and showed that his character was now wearing an in-game replication of his signature purple and black patched hoodie.

Roman’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Oh my goodness, that’s brilliant,’ he whispered, partly impressed by the game, though mostly impressed by the incredible idea that just popped into his head.

‘You should totally get the game. We could play together,’ Virgil said, smiling when he brought the console back to his lap.

‘I would like that,’ Roman said sincerely. ‘Though for now, I must be off.’

He rose from the bed, being careful to keep his left arm clutched tightly to his side to avoid dropping the toy and ruining his plan. He was ready to go and settle down to hours of work, but the child in him begged him to do one last thing before he left.

‘Still brothers?’ he asked hesitantly.

Virgil immediately looked up from the screen, his expression soft around the edges. ‘Yeah,’ he said quietly with a smile. ‘Still brothers.’

‘Yes!’ Roman cheered, punching the air with his right hand. It was followed by a huff of amusement from Virgil. ‘Love you, Virge,’ Roman said offhandedly as he turned away, ready to leave at that.

‘Uh, yeah,’ Virgil mumbled.

Roman paused on his way out. He knew Virgil fairly well, having spent so much time around him during the previous few months, and so he liked to think he had a fairly decent amalgamation of the varying tones of Virgil’s mumbles and what they meant. The wheezy ones showed distress, the stunted ones showed annoyance, the lowest ones showed reluctant happiness. This particular brand of mumble, quiet and high-pitched, projected Virgil’s embarrassment. And honestly what kind of big brother would Roman be if he missed such a harmless opportunity for teasing?

He spun back around with a smirk which only grew wider when Virgil saw it and groaned.

‘Say it,’ Roman insisted, holding back a laugh.

‘Go ‘way,’ Virgil whined, pulling his console up to cover his face, though Roman could still spy the blush peeking from behind it.

‘Aww, come on.’ Roman stepped closer to the bed, giggling when Virgil brought the Switch so close to his face that it touched his nose. ‘You said it yesterday,’ Roman sing-songed, kneeling down right in front of Virgil on the bed.

‘Then you shouldn’t need to hear it again,’ Virgil grumbled.

‘Oh, but I’ve forgotten what the pure adoration in your voice sounded like,’ Roman teased, reaching forward to lower the gadget from Virgil’s face. He bit his tongue in amusement when Virgil glared at him past bright pink cheeks. ‘How did you say it? “Wuvoo, Wo-Wo”?’

‘You’re no longer welcome in my kingdom.’

Roman shrugged, still being careful to keep his left arm secure over the stuffed racoon in his jacket. He swivelled his legs to plop down onto the bed.

‘Not leaving until you say it,’ he proclaimed proudly.

Virgil growled (adorably) and dropped the console to the bed, crossing his arms. An unintelligible mumble left his lips.

‘Hm, what was that?’ Roman asked with a giddy smile. He held his ear forward with his free hand. ‘I couldn’t quite hear -’

‘I love you, you weirdo!’ Virgil said loudly, seemingly agitated, though Roman knew there was no real heat behind it (he was well-versed in recognising Virgil’s playful irritation versus his real, leave-me-alone-right-now-or-suffer irritation). ‘Now get out of my room.’

Roman stood and bowed regally, ‘As you wish, Princess Bitter-cup.’

Something small and soft was hurled at his head.

‘Wow,’ Roman chuckled, picking up the tiny giraffe stuffie from the floor with his free hand and chucking it back onto Virgil’s toy pile. ‘Even when you’re a bitch you’re adorable.’

The pout on Virgil’s face was not a dangerous one so Roman winked. He sauntered off towards the door, finally satisfied that the guilty fog in his head had blown away. ‘See you later, lil bro.’

‘Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, big bro,’ Virgil responded sarcastically behind him.

Roman gasped, turning back around in the open doorway. ‘Umm, rude much - Ahh!’ He had to hurriedly jump back into the hallway to avoid being hit in the face by the door, which had suddenly slammed shut.

Waiting a moment for his heart to stop beating so hard from the spike of adrenaline, Roman heard muffled laughter coming from the bedroom. He scoffed and shook his head.

One of their house rules was to not use their metaphysical powers in the mindscape unless entirely unavoidable. Logan reserved his powers for actual emergencies, such as when the kitchen had set on fire. Patton only stretched the rules a little by using his powers to clean parts of the house that were difficult to reach or otherwise highly inconvenient. Roman used his powers only for absolute dire needs, such as summoning medical aid after an arduous adventure in the imagination (though on one occasion he had summoned puppies for desperately-needed snuggles). And Virgil, coming from years of living with the Other sides who used no such rule in their establishment, respected the rule for the most part, though renounced it on occasion in favour of performing relatively harmless pranks.

Roman could have tattled on him to Logan, though they had only just reconciled, so perhaps it wouldn’t have been the wisest decision. Plus, the next few hours of his time were decidedly booked.

He made his way down the hallway, already drawing up designs in his head. Being so inspired by his ingenious ideas, he almost bumped right into Logan at the top of the stairs.

‘Oh, sorry,’ Roman muttered, wondering how many more times he would utter that word that day. 

When Roman looked up, he was unsurprised to see that Patton stood right beside Logan. The two had been almost inseparable for the past two weeks when they weren’t caring for Roman and Virgil, and Roman was absolutely enamoured by their adorable attempts at keeping their budding relationship on the subtle side. They were obviously failing miserably.

What he was surprised to see, however, was a very large cardboard box huddled in both of Logan’s arms. ‘What’s in the box, specs?’

Logan and Patton looked at each other with unreadable expressions, then turned back to Roman and spoke simultaneously:

‘Stationery.’

‘What box?’

The two looked back at each other with wide eyes. Roman frowned, mind reeling with what two people in a new relationship could possibly buy together, have delivered in discreet packaging, and not want to tell - actually yeah, he didn’t want to think about that. 

‘Well, that was disturbing.’ Roman cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact as he hurried past them. ‘Forget I asked,’ he called back.

He had no time to worry about their stumbled defences. His sewing machine awaited!

oOo

Later that afternoon, Logan readjusted his position on the couch and crossed his legs with a sigh. He was feeling unusually restless. 

Patton and he had efficiently hidden their package some hours previously, thankful that Virgil did not witness their secrecy. It was all for his benefit, though the anxious side could be suspicious at the best of times. They could not afford for his defences to be raised any higher than they were already bound to be for the conversation they had planned.

As Logan waited, he breathed evenly, hoping to dispel his nerves before the other two joined him. Patton had left the room a minute previously to fetch Virgil for the chat.

There was no use in feeling nervous about it, Logan knew. It was only a conversation and truly there was nothing threatening about that. Still, the idea that Virgil could be upset by it disturbed Logan somewhat. He could not predict how the regressor would react to what they had to say. Though, as he so often said to Virgil, unpredictability should not be cause for worry. He took a steadying breath and uncrossed his legs.

Within a few moments, the door to the living room eased open and Patton stepped into the room with a quick nervous smile at Logan. After he had entered, Virgil shuffled in behind him, scratching at his hoodie sleeves and chewing his lip. Logan crossed his legs again.

‘Virgil, have a seat,’ Logan said gently, indicating the spot beside him on the couch. Patton had settled in the armchair.

Virgil’s eyes darted between both of them and the seat in quick succession.

‘You are not in trouble,’ Logan said, hoping that his smile was reassuring.

With a shaky sigh, Virgil perched on the end of the couch. He had sat as far from Logan as he possibly could.

‘Patton said you, uh, you wanted to talk about something?’ Virgil muttered.

‘Yes,’ Logan said. He internally made a note to talk to Patton about open-ended requests and how they could exacerbate Virgil’s anxiety, though pushed the matter aside for now. He carefully angled his body toward Virgil, trying to use more engaging body language as he could sense Virgil might try to close himself off. ‘We need to talk about your recent bathroom issues.’

As predicted, Virgil wrapped his arms tightly around himself and sunk further into the couch. Though he didn’t try to leave (for which Logan was grateful). ‘Oh.’

‘You are aware that Patton spoke to me about you two’s discussion, are you not?’

The question was met with a slight nod from Virgil. Logan did not miss the tremble in his fingers which clawed at his hoodie sleeves.

‘Virgil, I’d like to remind you that neither Patton nor I are in any way angry or disappointed with you,’ Logan said, knowing that Virgil’s anxiety must have been wreaking havoc in his mind.

‘Absolutely not,’ Patton agreed fervently. ‘We love you so much, Stormcloud. This doesn’t change that.’

‘Okay.’ Virgil did not meet either of their gazes. ‘Can I leave now?’

Logan sighed, knowing the conversation was bound to be difficult given Virgil’s attitude. ‘That wasn’t what we wanted to talk about.’

Virgil slumped in defeat.

‘I told Logan about everything you said to me yesterday,’ Patton started gently, ‘and we think we might have a solution to -’

‘You can fix it?’ Virgil asked, finally raising his gaze from his lap to look at Logan pleadingly.

Guilt flooded the logical side. It was not often Virgil felt hopeful about anything. In fact, Logan and the others had been trying to convince him to accept more optimism into his thought process, though unfortunately in this situation it had to be shot down.

‘Not exactly.’ At the look of hurt in Virgil’s eyes, Logan had to contain a wince. ‘You cannot always fix something,’ he explained. ‘Sometimes, the situation is unavoidable and the only option is to adapt.’

‘Adapt?’ Virgil echoed uncertainly.

Logan’s eyes inched over to Patton. They had agreed it might be more agreeable for Virgil to hear the suggestion from his lips.

‘Sweetheart,’ Patton said gently, ‘how would you feel if whenever you regressed you wore a diaper?’

‘No!’ Virgil immediately yelled, his voice cracking.

Logan shared a quick, bewildered look with Patton.

‘No, no, no, no, no,’ Virgil rambled frantically, his hands fisting in the cushion beneath him. Logan was shocked by the abject horror on the younger side’s face. ‘No, I can’t! I can’t, no, no -’

‘Honey, honey, stop. It’s all right,’ Patton hurried to soothe him, holding his hands up in surrender. ‘It’s completely okay if you don’t want to wear one.’

Patton was correct. It would have been completely acceptable had Virgil not wanted to try diapers. But - Logan noted with curiosity - Virgil had not said he didn’t _want_ to. He had said he _can’t_. The small slip-up suggested that (even if only on a subconscious level) Virgil perceived the concept as unattainable, as opposed to undesirable. Logan felt an obligation to investigate further.

‘Why?’ he asked simply.

‘Logan,’ Patton whispered sharply, sending him a reprimanding look.

‘I won’t have any more accidents, I promise!’

Both caregivers looked back at Virgil in surprise.

‘Virgil,’ Logan said carefully, wary of the panic in Virgil’s eyes, ‘we understand that you do not do it on purpose, hence the term “accident”. We all know now that when you are regressed you cannot control it. Now I am sorry, but you simply cannot keep that promise.’

Virgil squirmed in place, his whole posture tense and alert. ‘Th-then I won’t regress anymore.’

Patton gasped, and Logan could hardly blame him. Though Logan had been prepared for Virgil to turn down the idea, the intensity of his reaction was entirely unforeseen.

‘Why would you say that, Virgil?’ Patton whispered, sounding heartbroken.

Virgil was trembling. He clearly had no answer. Though Logan was not convinced he would be able to reply even if he did have one.

‘Your regression is not voluntary.’ Logan spoke in a calm, low voice. ‘You have no say in whether it happens or not. You yourself told us this.’ He frowned in confusion. Virgil’s reaction was so fraught that it seemed to be inflicting his capacity for rational thinking.

To his vague relief, Virgil did appear to have gotten through the worst of his panic, though he still glanced between Patton and Logan nervously. ‘I can hide in my room,’ he suggested shakily. ‘I won’t bother you anymore, I’m sorry for burdening you, I -’

‘Stop,’ Logan said firmly. He could not bear to listen to the anxiety-driven drivel any longer. ‘I want you to take a deep breath.’

Virgil did just that, and the result was instantaneous. As he exhaled, his shoulders dropped from his neck and his hands eased their grip on the couch.

‘Good, keep going,’ Logan murmured, sharing a concerned look with Patton as Virgil took another shaky breath. When Logan had deemed it safe to do so, he continued.

‘We do not want you to hide in your room,’ he said clearly, being cautious to keep his tone gentle. ‘You do not need to hide your regression from us. You are not a burden.’

Virgil bit his lip but did not protest.

‘You could never be a burden,’ Patton said softly. By the jitteriness of his fingertips, Logan could tell that Patton was eager to reach out and hold Virgil, though he held back. ‘Please don’t hide this part of yourself again, sweetheart. You don’t need to.’

Even as his silence persisted, Virgil gave a stiff nod.

Now that Virgil had calmed down, for the most part, Logan launched into his investigation.

‘Could you perhaps explain why you are so adamantly against the idea of using diapers?’ It was met with bewildered looks of varying intensity from both of the others, so Logan elaborated, ‘In no circumstance would we ever force you into doing something against your will. That is not my intention for this conversation. I would merely like to examine your thought process surrounding the concept.’

Virgil looked imploringly to Patton, though was only met with an apologetic smile and nod.

‘Virgil,’ Logan called softly and was hurt to see the look of betrayal that turned onto him. ‘Please.’

He insisted on holding Virgil’s gaze until the younger side looked away with a sigh.

‘I just…’ Virgil pulled his knees up to his chest in a defensive pose. ‘It’s just weird,’ he mumbled.

Good, they could at least get somewhere with that.

‘Sweetie, it’s not -’

Logan held his hand up, silencing Patton. Though the reassurance was well-intended, Logan believed that simply disparaging Virgil’s views would be ineffective. They had to address the root cause of the issue.

‘And why is it weird?’ Logan prompted.

Virgil’s brow furrowed and he looked up at Logan with wide eyes, apparently (unreasonably) taken aback by the simple question.

‘I-I dunno,’ he said hesitantly. ‘Adults shouldn’t need -’

‘Some adults require incontinence products.’ Logan nipped that train of thought in the bud right away. ‘It is beyond their control, and yet you would call it weird?’

‘N-no!’ Virgil hurriedly defended. ‘No, of course not. That’s not - I meant _I_ shouldn’t need… those.’

Logan muffled the growing satisfaction in his chest as they inched closer to the crux of the problem. ‘And why is it weird for you specifically and not those other adults?’

Virgil’s arms squeezed around his legs, pulling them tighter against his chest. ‘Because it’s, um, not a medical issue?’ he asked quietly, seeming more uncertain of his own argument with each passing second.

‘That is unimportant,’ Logan said. ‘Regardless of the cause, you are still unable to control your bladder on occasion.’

The tension in Virgil’s posture was painfully visible, as was the growing flush to his cheeks.

‘So, I will ask you again.’ Logan scooted himself slightly closer to Virgil on the couch, hoping that the closeness would bring Virgil some kind of comfort. He did not move away. ‘Why would it be weird for you to wear diapers if it is not weird for anyone else to do the same?’

Virgil blinked quickly and opened his mouth. Then he shut it, blinked, looked to his knees, opened his mouth, and shut it again. After a repeat of this cycle, he groaned quietly and buried his face against his knees.

‘You cannot think of an answer because it is an incorrect statement,’ Logan said. Looking at Virgil’s hunched form, he realised that being proven right was not nearly as satisfactory when it caused such distress to someone he loved. ‘I can assure you that your worries surrounding this matter are unfounded.’

‘He’s right, Virgil,’ Patton added. ‘You don’t need to be embarrassed about this, it’s all right.’

Virgil shook his head, though his face was still concealed by his knees. ‘Is not.’

‘It is,’ Logan insisted. ‘Your mental state regresses to that of a toddler’s, so why should we expect every aspect of your physical state to be any different? A toddler cannot be expected to have such a high command over their body.’

‘But I should,’ Virgil argued weakly into his jeans.

‘Not when you’re regressed, sweetheart,’ Patton said. ‘You’re just a baby, you can’t -’

‘I’m not a baby, I’m a pervert!’ Virgil shouted, his head snapping up from his knees fiercely.

Logan’s breath rushed from his lungs, his stomach lurching at such intense self-deprecation coming from the person he had come to see as his child.

‘Stormcloud…’ Patton whispered, sounding close to tears.

Virgil beat him to it. His “sweater paws” (that had been a highly useful vocab card) scrubbed harshly at the tears that fell to his cheeks. The image made Logan’s heart sink.

‘I’m a freak,’ Virgil mumbled into his sleeve. ‘I’m just gross and messed up and attention-seeking and…’ His voice had become squeaky and broken before he trailed off.

‘Baby, no, no, no,’ Patton cooed sadly and rushed to his side at break-neck speed. Squeezing in to sit between the regressor and the armrest, Patton wrapped his arm around Virgil’s shoulders and pulled him to lean against his side. ‘Virgil, honey, none of that is true. None of it.’

Virgil sniffled as Patton kissed his head.

Following Patton’s lead, Logan closed the distance between them on the couch. He placed one hand on Virgil’s knee and squeezed while his other settled on Patton’s forearm gently.

‘Please understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with your regression or with how your body reacts to it,’ Logan pleaded, feeling strangely helpless. He had been so certain that Virgil knew his regression was valid. What had changed to make him spout this nonsense? ‘As you have informed us and as I have ascertained from my own research, age regression is by its very nature entirely non-sexual.’

Virgil nodded against Patton’s shoulder.

‘It is and always has been a natural state for you,’ Logan went on, sure that Virgil was aware of this already.

As suspected, Virgil nodded again.

Logan frowned. Where could this all have been coming from? ‘And you are aware that it is highly beneficial to your emotional wellbeing.’

‘Yeah,’ Virgil said, his voice wet and choked.

‘And you enjoy it!’ Patton said, injecting joy into his words. Logan saw how his arms tightened around Virgil’s form. ‘That’s as good a reason as any.’

Once more, Virgil nodded.

Logan considered why Virgil might have had such a sudden change of heart towards his view of age regression. It was, of course, possible that he had simply kept these views hidden up until that moment, though they had addressed his insecurities surrounding the matter on multiple occasions over the past three months. With a heavy heart, Logan realised that if these opinions had not originated from Virgil himself, they had to have originated elsewhere and been figuratively drilled into him.

‘Who called you those words, Virgil?’ Logan asked delicately. 

Virgil angled his head further into Patton’s shoulder in avoidance.

It was an unusual experience, watching the realisation dawn on Patton’s face. His eyes lost their joyful sparkle and his concerned expression melted into one of pure indignation and - most uncharacteristically - rage. The moral side pushed gently at Virgil’s shoulders, getting him to sit upright to reveal his face.

‘Who was it?’ Patton asked, his voice shaking with what Logan suspected was carefully concealed anger.

Virgil hunched in his seat and met Logan’s eyes for a split second before hurriedly looking down at his knees. ‘No one.’

‘Falsehood,’ Logan said sternly. He did not want to make Virgil anxious at all by prying, but he could not afford for this topic of conversation to be shrugged off so easily. ‘Who was it?’

With a deep, shaky sigh, Virgil rested his chin on his knees and muttered, ‘I mean no one I know.’

Patton sent a confused look to Logan over the head of purple hair.

‘Could you please elaborate?’ Logan asked.

A moment of silence passed, and just as Logan was preparing to ask again, Virgil inhaled sharply, paused, and then spoke.

‘A couple weeks ago I made a Tumblr post about my regression.’ Virgil’s voice was quiet enough that Logan had to strain to hear it. ‘About how I wasn’t ashamed of it anymore and - and about you guys,’ Virgil said. He tugged at a strand of his hair harshly.

Logan reached out and smoothed his fingers over Virgil’s hand, convincing him to release the hair. Their hands both dropped to the couch cushion, remaining joined at Logan’s insistence. He understood where the conversation was heading. ‘I am aware that there is an anonymous question function on Tumblr.’

Virgil’s fingers twitched against Logan’s palm. ‘S-someone kept sending asks saying it was just a… a fetish and telling me I was sick and weird and -’ he cut off with an audible gulp, ‘and a bunch of other stuff.’

‘They’re wrong,’ Patton stated without room for argument. Logan saw the muscle in his jaw jumping. ‘They - I can’t believe someone would -’ His voice was incredibly strained and it strangled his words so much that Patton seemed to almost gag over them. He blew out a harsh breath, the sound something akin to a hiss. ‘This is ridiculous.’

Patton was shaking with the effort to contain his reaction and looked about ready to burst. Glancing down, Logan realised with a hint of concern that Virgil was looking at Patton in surprise and, unfortunately, appeared to be nervous.

‘Patton,’ Logan said, ‘I want you to take a moment to -’

‘No, Logan!’ Patton whispered harshly, red in the face. He snatched his arm off from Virgil then clenched his fists in his lap. ‘They’re bullies. Horrible, mean, cruel bullies. I just don’t understand why!’ he broke into a shout. Virgil flinched and leaned into Logan’s side. ‘Why the _hell_ would someone want to - I mean, how could - To our baby!’

Logan was in full agreement to everything that Patton was saying (even if most of it had to be read between the lines since he seemed so enraged that he could hardly get a full sentence out). But - Logan noted, seeing that Virgil was staring at his lap in shame - this was neither the time nor the place to display aggression. 

‘Patton,’ Logan said more firmly, ‘I understand you are angry, but please be wary of the sensitivity of this situation. I am sure Virgil would appreciate calm right now.’

‘I don’t mind.’ Virgil sounded feeble at best.

‘Angry?’ Patton repeated incredulously, actually looking at Logan in shock. ‘I - I’m not angry, I’m just…’ He went silent, the fire dissipating from his eyes and being replaced by uncertainty. Then he whispered, all heat faded from his tone, ‘I’m not angry.’

Logan nodded slowly. It was evident Patton was having trouble identifying his negative emotions, though Logan did not feel it right to divert the purpose of the conversation. He would have to delay the talk with Patton until after they had resolved Virgil’s issue, especially since he suspected Virgil would not open up so readily a second time.

‘Now, Virgil,’ Logan said. He looked at Patton pointedly, conveying that they had to get back to the task at hand. Patton nodded, the tension finally dispelling from his form. ‘These strangers online do not see how this coping mechanism helps you.’ Logan squeezed the younger side’s fingers slightly, earning his attention through a hesitant glance. ‘Their opinions are uninformed and therefore worthless.’

‘I’m sorry, sweetie,’ Patton breathed. He was curled into himself slightly, clearly embarrassed by his loss of control. ‘I didn’t mean to - these people are clearly very _damaged,_ ’ he said the word as if it were a substitute for harsher language, ‘and, for whatever reason, they only wanted to hurt you.’ He cautiously wrapped his arm back around Virgil’s shoulders. ‘Those kinds of people don’t have any authority over you or your regression.’

‘I guess not,’ Virgil said. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, melting into Patton’s touch.

Logan sighed in faint relief, glad that Virgil no longer seemed intimidated by Patton’s outburst. ‘It is a futile task in pandering to these idiots’ prejudices. Your regression makes you happy and so it is indisputably perfect.’

The words earned him a soft smile from Virgil and Logan felt his own expression soften at the sight.

‘Thank you,’ Virgil said with finality.

‘Though,’ Logan started, something still eating away at him, ‘it remains unclear how these bullies made you feel bad about needing diapers specifically.’

Virgil bit his lip, then looked back at the floor. ‘I - I wanted to try them a while ago,’ he whispered.

From the look on Patton’s face, it seemed Logan was not alone in his surprise.

‘It was just so scary whenever I had an accident!’ Virgil quickly defended. ‘I - I didn’t know what else to do. I was stupid and -’

‘Try again,’ Patton interrupted with a squeeze on Virgil’s shoulder.

‘I was dumb and -’

‘Again.’

‘I… was _uninformed_ and didn’t know how to buy them. So I made a post asking for advice.’ Virgil rushed through the words as if wanting them to be over as soon as possible. ‘Then there was a bunch of asks saying it was disgusting and pathetic and hilarious and -’

‘Imbeciles,’ Logan growled loudly, though took a steadying breath and left it at that. He would absolutely be having a chat with Patton later so they could release their frustrations in private, away from Virgil.

‘None of that is true,’ Patton said softly. ‘Do you remember what Logan said about toddlers not being expected to have such a high level of bodily control?’

Virgil nodded.

‘You aren’t aware of yourself when you’re regressed, so you have to trust us when we tell you that when you’re in that headspace you really are a toddler.’ Patton said it slowly and deliberately, not giving Virgil a chance to dispute the words.

Virgil looked up at Logan, seeking confirmation.

‘It was astonishing to experience at first,’ Logan said, ‘but I cannot deny it. It truly is remarkable. And wonderful,’ he added truthfully.

Patton nodded enthusiastically and guided Virgil’s head to look back at him with gentle fingers. ‘As surprising as it was, we can tell it’s very real and natural.’ Patton kissed Virgil’s head. ‘There is absolutely nothing about your regression or your body that’s wrong in any way. Do you understand that now?’

Virgil stalled for a few seconds, though when he finally spoke, Logan could hear it was sincere. ‘Yeah. I think so.’

‘And I’m so proud of you for trying to help yourself, honey.’ Patton pulled Virgil into a tighter hug. ‘I’m sorry we weren’t there to look after you back then.’

‘But you are now… right?’ Virgil pulled away from Patton and peered shyly between both of them.

‘Of course we are,’ Patton replied instantly.

Logan felt a swell of pride and love overtake him. ‘We always will be.’

Virgil hid a smile behind his sweater paw.

‘Kiddo… can you maybe turn off the anonymous option on your blog?’ Patton asked hesitantly, reaching out to card his fingers through the length of Virgil’s hair. ‘I don’t wanna control what you do but it really worries me that these strangers could make you feel so bad about yourself.’

‘Already did,’ Virgil mumbled.

Logan saw that the tip of Virgil’s thumb had found its way to his lips. He was not surprised that Virgil appeared to be slipping into his regression; it had been a distressing conversation for him.

‘Clever boy,’ Patton praised, lightly pinching Virgil’s cheek. He must have noticed the slip too.

A shy smile wormed its way onto Virgil’s features.

Patton gasped dramatically. ‘Oh my, there’s suddenly an adorable baby in the room! Where did he come from?’

The thumb that had rested on Virgil’s lips now pressed between them. Logan recognised the light blush on Virgil’s cheeks as indicative of his impending infantile headspace.

‘Before you regress completely,’ Logan said quickly, wanting to be concise lest he miss the remaining moments of Virgil’s adult mindset. ‘Will you please reconsider our suggestion? We have already purchased some diapers for you as a precautionary measure and I think it will be a good idea for you to wear one today.’

‘I think so too, sweetheart,’ Patton added softly. ‘Just to see how it feels.’ 

Virgil hummed, though it might have been a muffled whimper.

‘There is no pressure to agree at all. Similarly, if you do attempt it but dislike it then there is no need to continue.’ Logan hoped to reassure any of Virgil’s doubts that might have been inhibiting what was clearly curiosity, perhaps even desire. ‘Though I believe it will at the very least be worth a try.’

Virgil genuinely seemed to consider it.

‘Remember, we’re only doing this to help you feel safe, Stormcloud,’ Patton whispered, running his knuckle against Virgil’s cheek.

Logan gently took hold of Virgil’s hand and eased it away from his mouth so that his thumb left his lips. Virgil pouted at him, though Logan ignored it in favour of asking, ‘What would you like to do, Virgil?’

To Logan’s astonishment, he nodded.

‘Try,’ Virgil said, his voice babyish and muted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry I had to end it there, it just got too long! Last week I promised that this chapter will feature diapers, but I had to cut it before we got there, so you'll have to wait until next time :( To make up for it, the next update will be super fluffy and so heartwarmingly sweet that you’ll get cavities (money-back guarantee!)
> 
> Massive thanks to my friend Duckie for reading over the first draft of this chapter, giving me notes and cheering me on, it wouldn’t be the same without her! You can find her adorable age dreaming tumblr here: [duckies-little-pond](https://duckies-little-pond.tumblr.com/) 🐣💛
> 
> Please consider leaving a comment if you enjoyed this chapter or babble to me on my tumblr: [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/) ♡
> 
> Adieu!


	6. Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan secretly loves cuddles, Virgil learns some changes can be good, and Patton feels left out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Roman this time, sorry! I’m as upset as you are, trust me
> 
> Content warning: This chapter heavily features a diaper change - just as with the bath scene in chapter four, any nudity is neither graphic nor sexualised.

Admittedly, it took Logan a moment or so to acknowledge that Virgil had, in fact, agreed with their suggestion. For all of Logan’s nervousness and suspicion that the conversation would end less than pleasantly, Virgil’s courage had surpassed Logan’s expectations.

That Virgil trusted his caregivers enough to share such sensitive information with them about his insecurities and, yet more impressive, had agreed to challenge those insecurities with their help? It was nothing short of astounding.

Over the regressor’s head, Patton’s eyes glistened with pride looking at their baby. Logan was certain the very same look was reflected in his own eyes.

‘What a brave baby!’ he found himself gushing, smiling down at the boy in front of him.

Virgil’s hand came up to hide his lips behind his thumb so Logan could not catch his small smile. Though he could still see how Virgil’s eyes positively beamed with joy at the praise.

‘And a cute one at that!’ Patton tagged on and curled his hand around to poke Virgil’s nose with practised precision.

If Logan was not certain of Virgil’s fall into his regressed headspace before, he definitely was now. It never failed to amaze him how such simple gestures from Patton could cause Virgil to melt into a figurative puddle so effortlessly.

It was fair to say that Logan had been sufficiently surprised in the past few moments, though nothing could have compared to what happened next. It was subtle, not worth noting to most people, perhaps. Though, for Logan, it was groundbreaking.

Virgil scrunched his nose (which was a customary reaction to one of Patton’s nose boops), blushed (customary), giggled (customary), and fell forwards, burying his forehead against Logan’s chest. (Unprecedented.)

They had, of course, been physically affectionate in recent weeks. Logan often had an arm around Virgil’s shoulders or a hand on his back and on more than one occasion had found himself with a lapful of the boy. Though what was so remarkable about this moment, in particular, was not necessarily that Virgil was seeking comfort in Logan, but rather that he had not sought it in Patton.

It was perfectly obvious that given the choice Virgil would always gravitate towards Patton’s embrace above anyone else’s. Logan knew the reason behind it, of course; Patton was the first person who had knowingly been around Virgil while he was regressed, and so Virgil had become attached to him in a way that resembled imprinting in new-borns. That and the moral side was the professed Cuddle-Monster of the mindscape and had mastered the art of physical affection. (Logan knew first-hand how Patton’s touch could be grounding and yet spellbinding all at once.) So logic was perfectly sound whenever Virgil snuggled up to his papa, his back turned against Logan.

Despite that observation, an unpleasant feeling had awakened within Logan each and every time Virgil inevitably made his choice between the two caregivers. Logan had never even dared to expect a resolution to his confessed jealousy.

Though here they sat, where Virgil had, for the first time ever, willingly forgone Patton’s embrace in favour of Logan’s.

Watching Patton for any sign of jealousy or bitterness (which were not found), Logan brought his hand up to cup the crown of Virgil’s head protectively. ‘Very cute,’ he whispered.

His eyes fell down and noticed that Virgil’s hand was flush with his chin, the thumb completely hidden away in his lips.

Logan tutted gently. Still keeping his hold on Virgil’s head, his free hand reached into his pants pocket. He revealed one of Virgil’s pacifiers. (He had kept it on hand, anticipating that Virgil would possibly regress after the distressing conversation.) Patton’s hand hovered in midair ready to accept it, and Logan flipped off the protective casing with his thumb and passed the pacifier into Patton’s waiting fingers. It was a fluid movement, the caregivers both being so used to this routine.

‘My, my, isn’t this a pretty paci?’ Patton claimed loudly. He held the pacifier at arm’s length in front of Virgil, angling it so that the light bounced off of the glittery purple plastic.

Virgil’s head turned on Logan’s chest to see what Patton was talking about, and right on cue, he gasped around his thumb.

‘I might just have to keep it for myself,’ Patton said casually as he openly admired the soother.

As expected, a small whine escaped Virgil and he pulled his thumb out from his mouth to make grabby hands at the pacifier, which was just out of his reach.

‘Oh, did you want it, baby?’

Logan felt Virgil nod quickly against his chest.

‘Aw, all right. I can’t say no to that face,’ Patton smiled, bringing the teat to Virgil’s lips and letting it slip between them easily. ‘Do you want paci smooches, my sweet little stormcloud?’

Again, Virgil’s head nodded enthusiastically against Logan’s sternum.

Logan tried to keep the bubble of anticipation swelling inside him in check. It was always so invigorating to watch such endearing acts between Virgil and Patton. If Logan were prone to melodrama, he would be tempted to call it a serotonin overdose.

Patton slid off of the couch to kneel on the carpet directly in front of them, a wide smile plastered across his face. He so clearly adored being a caregiver. His hands gently cupped Virgil’s cheeks as he leaned forward to press several pecks onto the centrepiece of the pacifier.

Tiny squeals came from the boy in his lap while Logan’s heart swelled at the adorable display.

Patton giggled at the giddy reaction. He trailed the kisses up to the tip of Virgil’s nose, then to his brow, his forehead… and then he paused, his lips having risen enough above Virgil’s head to now be mere centimetres from Logan’s.

Traitorously, Logan’s eyes fixed instinctively upon Patton’s lips - which then pulled into a smile.

Logan felt his cheeks warm, inexplicably enjoying the sensation.

‘Later?’ he suggested with a smirk that he hoped rivalled Patton’s.

Those pink lips were pulled between white teeth and their owner nodded. ‘Later.’

As Patton pulled back to stand himself up, Logan realised that at some point Virgil’s head had dropped back onto his shoulder. The regressor had also shuffled closer, his legs now folded up and leaning against Logan’s arm.

‘Sweetie, Papa is gonna go and get some things ready for you,’ Patton said softly and stroked his fingers through Virgil’s bangs. The younger side hummed. ‘Do you think you can stay here with Mama for a little bit?’

Logan was fully prepared for the suggestion to be met with fear and hesitance. He certainly hadn’t expected the small nod of agreement that came from Virgil. As it turned out, not much that had happened that day had been very predictable.

Through a firm nod at Patton, Logan hoped he could communicate that the moral side should not stick around long enough to see if Virgil would change his mind. To his credit, Patton seemed to understand.

‘All right, you two. I’ll be back before you know it!’ Patton practically skipped to the living room door.

Logan felt a sudden shift in his arms as Virgil quickly raised his head.

‘Wuvoo!’ Virgil called out hastily.

‘Love you more, cutie pie!’ Patton yelled back from the hallway.

Logan brought a hand up to card through Virgil’s hair. The boy was clearly anxious about being apart from Patton despite his agreement to it.

With a little sigh, Virgil’s head dropped once more to Logan’s shoulder and he wriggled on the couch.

Logan guessed that Virgil was attempting to move closer to him, though the task was physically impossible in their current position given how Virgil’s body was already completely pressed against Logan’s side.

Acknowledging that Virgil likely needed more physical contact to calm his nerves, Logan carefully wrapped his arms around Virgil’s back and under his knees then lifted the boy onto his lap.

‘Is that better, Virgil?’ he asked quite hesitantly. Hopefully, he had not made an incorrect assumption. Virgil had been in his lap before, of course, though Logan had never been the one to initiate the contact.

A sleepy hum floated into the air and Virgil’s nose was pressed into his shirt. Gentle puffs of breath lightly warmed Logan’s skin.

‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ Logan whispered, not wanting to disturb the calm that had settled over the room.

Virgil’s legs were still curled up to his chest, his body folded into a tight ball. Logan could not resist the urge to circle his arms all the way around him and cradle the bundle in his lap. He rocked them both gently to and fro.

Logan could feel that his own heart rate slowed as the moments went by and knew that it was a result of the high level of oxytocin that was most certainly circling through his veins. He also knew that the wide smile on his face would likely have been called “dopey” if Roman were present.

After a minute or so of the serene atmosphere, Virgil suddenly stiffened as if having noticed something then whimpered and gripped at Logan’s shirt.

‘Where Papa?’ he mumbled through the pacifier.

‘Do you not remember?’ Logan prompted softly.

There was no response forthcoming. Virgil must have been truly deep in his regression.

‘Papa went to get some things ready for you. I promise he will be back soon.’

‘Thoon?’ Virgil squeaked, clutching the material of Logan’s shirt tighter.

‘Yes, sweetheart,’ Logan murmured, surprised by the ease with which the term of endearment had rolled off of his tongue, ‘very soon.’

The word “soon” seemed too abstract to offer Virgil much comfort and he started to squirm slightly, though not enough to disturb the embrace at all. Being held was evidently not enough to entirely circumvent his separation anxiety.

‘I know. Let’s see how many seconds it takes for Papa to get back.’ Logan squeezed his arms gently around Virgil, hoping it offered comfort. ‘Shall we count together, Vee?’

At the energetic nod on his chest, Logan smiled. Virgil was never in an old enough headspace to actually be able to count with him, though he always opted for the inclusive phrasing nonetheless.

‘All right, are you ready? One, two, three, four, five -’

Logan continued on in a soft tone, the climbing numbers soon resembling more of a monotonous hum.

Counting aloud to Virgil was a tactic Logan had picked up to soothe the younger side’s anxiety. He himself had always found lists to be comforting, and the chronology of numbers was a truly endless list. He assumed that in Virgil’s case, the fact that Logan always counted aloud to even out Virgil’s breathing in the midst of an anxiety attack had created a sort of Pavlovian response in the boy; counting during a panic attack would amount to even breathing, which naturally soothed Virgil, and so Logan repeating the method outside of distressing circumstances tended to have a learned response of eliciting calm.

As the numbers rose higher, Virgil sunk further into Logan’s embrace and into relaxation. By the time Logan had reached the 240s and could hear Patton’s returning footsteps in the hallway, Virgil was a dead weight against him. The logical side suspected he may have fallen into a slumber, though he didn’t dare look down to check. He was worried that he would jostle the boy and risk shocking him out of his peaceful state.

When Patton shuffled back into the room quietly and looked at the pair on the couch, he instantly clapped his hands over his mouth. Logan strongly suspected the twinkles in his eyes to be unshed tears of happiness

_‘Oh my goodness,’_ Patton whispered into his palms. ‘I think he’s asleep, Lo.’

‘I suspected as much,’ Logan said plainly but felt the corner of his lips twitch up.

The small smile dropped from his face when he saw Patton bring out his cellphone.

‘Patton,’ Logan groaned quietly, his cheeks flushing.

He was not entirely fond of being photographed. The ordeal was fairly awkward. Was he meant to look at the camera or not? Should he pretend not to notice it and school his expression or react in some way? Logan had never had to worry much about it in the past, though recently Patton had become something of a photography enthusiast. His new hobby coincided quite directly with when they had begun to integrate the boys’ littlespaces into their family dynamic, which was unsurprising.

‘Oh, hush,’ Patton whispered with a bright smile, pulling the phone up to point at him. ‘You know you love it really.’

It was a half-truth, Logan supposed. He certainly did not like the process of being photographed. Though, the pictures Patton would send to him at the end of each day spent looking after their littles were some of Logan’s most cherished possessions, even if they were only pixels on a screen. The digital images of his family smiling together always offered Logan immense joy and motivation in rare moments of dejection.

‘You’re going to surpass your data storage limit at this rate,’ Logan mumbled, though he was sure it was obvious that his protest was insincere.

Patton frowned lightly as his finger tapped his phone screen, the camera shutter sound effect ringing out loudly. ‘I literally have no idea what you just said.’ The shutter clicked again.

Logan turned his gaze down to look at Virgil. The move was mostly since he felt uncomfortable looking at the camera, though he couldn’t deny that the sight he was met with was nearly addictive; Virgil curled up in his lap, his pacifier bobbing lightly in his mouth and his dark eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks.

With a slight pause, Logan acknowledged that Virgil was blinking awake, probably having heard Patton’s camera.

‘Hello, honey bunny,’ Patton cooed, pocketing his phone. ‘Did you and Mama have a nice cuddle?’

Virgil’s face pulled up from Logan’s chest. (A small chuckle escaped Logan at the fabric crease line that indented Virgil’s rosy cheek.) He blinked slowly for a couple of seconds then looked over at Patton and nodded.

Patton smiled and shuffled over to them on the carpet, holding his hands out to Virgil. ‘Papa’s gonna take you to get changed now. Say bye-bye to Mama.’

Logan barely had a chance to recognise the ounce of disappointment in his chest before Virgil was whining and burying his face against Logan’s neck.

With wide eyes, Logan wrapped his arms around Virgil tightly. ‘Virgil, what’s the matter?’

‘Mama,’ Virgil mumbled sadly.

‘You don’t wanna leave Mama?’ Patton asked, sounding surprised.

A verbal response was not necessary as the squeeze of Virgil’s arms around his torso was all the answer Logan needed.

His disappointment was drowned out by elation.

‘Would you like me to come with you and Papa?’

Virgil’s hair tickled his neck with a nod.

With lips that trembled with the effort not to break into a wide grin, Logan kissed Virgil’s head softly. What a big difference such a small decision on Virgil’s part had made. Logan felt his doubts about being an effective caregiver trickle away at the confirmation that Virgil truly did want him around. He allowed himself to smile openly into Virgil’s hair. God, it felt good to be wanted.

‘Come on, sweetheart,’ Logan murmured under his breath. He secured his arms tightly around Virgil then carefully rose from the couch, lifting him in a bridal carry.

He had hoped the term of endearment was uttered quietly enough to evade Patton’s sensitive hearing, though the high-pitched squeal of affection that assaulted his ears was hardly reassuring on that front.

Once Logan had stood (surprised by how easy it was to keep a secure hold on Virgil; the boy was lighter than Logan had anticipated), Virgil whimpered faintly and wriggled, supposedly uncomfortable with being carried.

‘Okay, Vee, one second.’ Logan cautiously lowered Virgil back to the ground, though kept a steadying arm around his shoulders. ‘There we are.’

Patton reached out to comb Virgil’s bangs back, then smiled at Logan and quickly turned to lead them out of the room. 

By the time they had made it to Virgil’s bedroom, Patton was practically prancing. ‘Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!’ he gushed as he opened the door and stepped into the bedroom.

Logan led Virgil in and shut the door behind him, noticing that Patton had set up quite thoroughly. As well as a selection of Virgil’s designated regression clothes laid out on the bed, there was also a large bath towel covering half of it. On top of the towel sat a bottle of baby powder, a tube of diaper cream, and a stack of four diapers, all adorning different patterns. Logan was glad that Patton had gone for a varied selection of the different styles they had purchased for Virgil. Having a certain degree of choice in the matter would hopefully give Virgil more of a sense of control over the situation.

By Virgil’s unchanged posture, Logan could tell that he had not noticed the diapers, and was unsure whether to be grateful for it or not.

‘Okay, sweetie,’ Patton said cheerily, ‘let’s show Mama how we get ready for baby time! Do you remember what we do first?’

Logan looked down to where Virgil clung to his side. The boy used his free hand to point at his eyes.

‘That’s right, we take off your makeup don’t we?’ Patton ran his thumb over Virgil’s cheek with a loving smile. ‘I’m gonna go and get your makeup wipes. It will only take a moment. Papa's not going anywhere, I promise, baby!’

It was clear Patton was making a point to reassure Virgil as he had probably been distressed in the past when Patton walked away. Though, Logan could only think it seemed superfluous as Virgil hardly reacted when Patton moved to the dresser. His only response was to lean more heavily against Logan. 

‘Let’s sit down while Papa does that,’ Logan offered, feeling that Virgil was unstable on his feet as usual. He guided Virgil to the bed and sat himself down on the edge of the mattress before gently pulling the regressor into his lap.

Virgil instantly curled up against his chest and sighed in content.

With a makeup wipe in hand, Patton turned back to them. Logan caught a vague glimpse of him faltering in his steps, though it hardly lasted more than a second so he thought it was not worth mentioning.

‘You’re very brave today, aren’t you sweetheart?’ Patton murmured softly as he kneeled in front of them on the carpet. There was an incongruous lull to his tone. It almost sounded like disappointment.

Logan’s pondering on the possible source of this strange melancholy was interrupted by Patton’s loud stage-whisper:

‘Vee, I think Mama secretly loves cuddles.’

A noise of indignance left Logan’s lips. What a presumptive statement!

‘Excuse me, I most certainly -’

The look of surprised delight with which Virgil hit him halted Logan’s excuse. How could he possibly be expected to figuratively shoot him down? Plus, lying would only garner unnecessary attention from Janus.

‘I… am merely not immune to Virgil’s expertise in cuddling,’ Logan admitted finally, tightening his arms around the regressor. A happy hum came from the boy as he dropped his head back to Logan’s chest.

Patton giggled quietly. ‘Come on, baby. Look at Papa.’

Virgil’s head lifted again and Patton reached forward to swipe across Virgil’s closed eyes gently, gradually removing the dark makeup from his face. 

In a way that Logan had not anticipated and did not fully understand, he felt he was being granted access to a moment that spanned beyond the surface reality of what was happening before his eyes. It was a simple task, the remnants of eye shadow and eyeliner being stripped from Virgil’s skin. Though something in the way Virgil’s body melted into Logan’s and the adoring, near-hypnotised look in Patton’s eyes told Logan that this was not merely an often-repeated chore; perhaps a better word to describe it would be ritual. There seemed to be a silent exchange of emotion between the Papa and his baby. Logan felt quite entranced by the show of love and trust between two of the three people for whom he cared most in the world.

Feeling lulled into an intensely relaxed state, Logan rested his chin delicately on Virgil’s head. He was careful not to put any weight on Virgil given how unstable his balance and strength were.

‘Such a good boy!’ Patton praised as he threw the dirtied makeup wipe into the wastebasket by Virgil’s desk. ‘Can you show Mama your lovely, clean face?’

Logan’s chinrest moved slightly and he raised his head to look down at the shyness in Virgil’s eyes looking up at him.

‘You’re a very sweet baby, behaving so well for your Papa,’ Logan whispered with a small smile. His thumb brushed over Virgil’s dewy cheek. When it pulled away, it left a light blush in its wake.

‘Alrighty, next step!’ Patton announced quite suddenly.

Virgil quickly looked over to him and pointed at his own chest quite proudly.

There was the slightest hesitation when Patton smiled softly and said, ‘Yes, normally we take off your clothes next, don’t we, baby? But this time we’re gonna do something a little bit new.’

A muffled whimper sounded in Logan’s ears and Virgil tensed up so quickly that Logan had to tighten his embrace to stop him from tumbling off of his lap.

‘It’s okay, sweetheart.’ Patton spoke incredibly gently and leaned down to cup Virgil’s cheeks as he explained, ‘it’s nothing scary. We just need you to choose a diaper to wear today.’ Patton pointed to the stack of folded diapers at the end of the bed.

Logan watched Virgil’s eyes follow Patton’s pointer finger and cloud over with nervousness when they settled on the diapers. He was evidently overwhelmed.

‘How about we just cuddle for a while and have a little think about it, Virgil?’ Logan suggested.

At Virgil’s fervent nod, Logan manoeuvred him to sit sideways in his lap to face the diapers. He rocked the boy gently.

‘Oh, um, yeah. Of course,’ Patton murmured, settling quietly onto the edge of the mattress a little ways away from the other two.

Once Logan felt the tension leave Virgil’s body, he spent a couple more moments simply holding him before he made a hum of intrigue.

‘Oh, I like the pattern on that one,’ he muttered, pretending to have only just noticed the diapers. With one arm keeping a firm hold on Virgil, Logan reached forward to grab the diaper on the top of the pile.

He pulled it back towards himself and turned it over in his hands, making sure it was held in Virgil’s line of sight to display the pink, yellow and blue alphabet block pattern.

‘And it feels very nice too.’ Logan ran his fingers lightly over the material and inched it closer to Virgil.

As Logan had hoped, Virgil hesitantly reached a single finger out to run over the diaper much the same as Logan’s had. It appeared his curiosity had superseded his anxiety.

‘Thof,’ Virgil whispered through his pacifier. The delicate sound almost shocked Logan as the boy had mostly been non-verbal since regressing earlier.

Logan was thankful that his triumphant smile was hidden behind Virgil’s head. ‘It is soft, isn’t it?’

‘I think I prefer the colours on this one,’ Patton announced, reaching out to take the next diaper. He had apparently caught onto Logan’s tactic with the way his lips trembled like they always did when he was trying to contain a mischievous smile. Logan’s chest practically ached with affection for him.

The second diaper - which was adorned with unicorns and rainbows - let out a loud rustling crinkle sound as Patton twisted it slightly in his hands. The moral side gasped quietly (though the sound was still clearly exaggerated for Virgil’s benefit) and looked at Virgil with an excited smile.

‘Ooh, I really like that sound!’ He squeezed the diaper again to elicit the crinkling once more.

Logan felt Virgil sit more upright in his lap.

‘Do you like it too, baby?’

The first diaper made a muted echo of the sound as Virgil tried to squeeze it himself. Then his head collapsed back onto Logan and his nose buried against his chest. A little nod told Logan that Virgil was not upset but merely shy about this admission.

Wanting to chase away Virgil’s timidity quickly, Logan reached for another diaper and dropped it directly into Virgil’s lap.

‘Oh my, look at that pretty colour!’ he exclaimed, knowing Virgil would not be able to resist his curiosity.

Supported by Logan’s steadying hands, Virgil’s body twisted away from his torso to look at the new diaper, which was a deep purple. His hands stroked over it without hesitation this time.

‘Burble?’ Virgil squeaked in surprise.

‘Yes, your favourite colour.’

The diaper was then pulled up to Virgil’s chest where the regressor hugged it protectively. Logan’s own arms squeezed and pulled Virgil closer against his chest in much the same manner.

‘Baby, look at this one!’ Patton called joyfully.

Logan felt Virgil bounce slightly in his lap as he craned his neck to better see the last diaper that Patton now held out towards him.

‘Can you tell me and Mama what animal this is?’ Patton pointed to one of the many animal characters on the diaper.

‘Biwaf!’ Virgil cried in a rare moment of excitement.

Patton positively beamed. ‘Yes, clever baby. It’s a giraffe!’

Happy that they had taken the path of a fun, educational activity, Logan eagerly pointed to another character. ‘What about this one, Vee?’

After a moment of silence, Virgil whined slightly and looked up at him for help.

Logan felt immense pride in being seen as a source of knowledge. ‘Can you remember what animal King Louie is in The Jungle Book?’ he prompted.

A tiny gasp met his ears as Virgil looked back down at the diaper and whispered, ‘Bawanganan.’

Laughter strained at Logan’s throat, but he pressed his lips into a firm line and swallowed it down. No matter how utterly endearing that was, he could _not_ allow himself to laugh lest it upset Virgil. Logan was perfectly practised in concealing outbursts of emotion, it should have been easy enough for him.

However, he failed to take into account Patton’s quivering smile which always made it so much harder to remain stoic.

‘C-can you say that again, honey?’ Patton asked, his voice trembling with concealed giggles. It was at this point that Logan knew he would not be able to last. Patton was so close to cracking himself, and his laughter was just too contagious.

And then Virgil spoke again, attempting to repeat what was likely a far too complex word for his headspace. ‘Amagabab?’

Surprisingly, Logan broke first. Deep, endless chuckles poured from his mouth and within a mere second, Patton’s joined in. Logan kept a firm hold around Virgil as his body shook with his laughter.

‘Wong?’ Virgil’s whimper cut through them and Logan promptly swallowed the rest of his mirth, not wanting Virgil to feel as if they were laughing at him.

‘No, sweetheart,’ Logan tried to say softly, though one final choked chuckle broke through the last word. ‘It is an orangutan, you’re right,’ he said much more calmly through an aching smile.

‘Aren’t you just the smartest little baby?’ Patton cooed, reaching out to pinch Virgil’s cheek.

Virgil giggled and scrunched his shoulders up. At a loud crinkle, Logan noted that the boy was still cuddling the purple diaper to his chest.

‘Do you have a favourite diaper you want to wear, sweetie pie?’ Patton asked, smiling knowingly.

Without responding, Virgil’s cheeks went a bit pink and he pulled the diaper further up to his chin as if wanting to hide behind it.

‘I think he does,’ Logan teased gently, poking the purple material in Virgil’s hands. He suddenly found himself with an embarrassed baby hiding against his neck.

Taking a moment to share an amused glance with Patton, Logan witnessed the smile on Patton’s face slowly fade

‘Do… you want Mama to undress you this time, honey?’ Patton asked quietly, avoiding Logan’s gaze.

It only took a slight stiffness in Virgil’s shoulders to convince Logan to make an excuse.

‘That’s all right,’ he quickly interjected. ‘I will just observe this time.’

He had not wanted Virgil to feel pressured to try too much change too fast and was glad to feel Virgil relax again in his arms.

‘Okay then!’ Patton bounced off of the mattress and took the diaper from Virgil’s hands with a bright smile, placing it on the mattress. ‘Let’s get those big clothes off, my little Stormcloud.’

A whine of protest sounded out as they both gently pried Virgil off of Logan’s lap and sat him on the bed beside him.

‘We cannot get you changed in my lap, Virgil,’ Logan murmured, feeling ridiculous for the internal ache at no longer having the child in his arms.

‘Up, up,’ Patton said as he tugged on Virgil’s wrists to get his arms above his head. He pulled Virgil’s hoodie and top off with slight wriggling defiance from the regressor. Once the clothes were flung off from Virgil’s arms and onto the floor, he crossed his arms tightly. Patton shook his head and smiled. ‘Uh oh, have we got a fussy baby?’

From the way his pacifier pushed forward slightly, Logan knew Virgil was pouting.

‘Do you know what the cure is for pouty little ones?’ Patton wriggled his fingers in midair in front of Virgil’s face and the boy’s cheeks immediately stretched in a wide smile.

Logan’s own teeth bared in a grin when Patton’s fingers pounced on Virgil and started skittering over his bare ribs. A high-pitched squeal rang around the room as Virgil curled forward, hugging his stomach.

‘Who’s a ticklish baby?’ Patton cooed, still teasing Virgil’s skin with his fingertips.

‘Well, this is just too precious,’ Logan murmured in disbelief, watching Virgil wriggle on the mattress and smile so much that he was surprised the boy’s pacifier hadn’t fallen out.

‘Oh, it’s about to get a whole lot precious-er!’ There was an impish glint in Patton’s eyes.

Virgil’s huffs of laughter were muffled and intermitted by little squeaks. He was clearly trying to hold them in.

‘Tickle, tickle, tickle,’ Patton teased in a sing-song, ‘I’m gonna find my baby’s… giggle!’

At the last word, Patton’s fingers suddenly shot down to squiggle at Virgil’s belly. As if it had triggered a switch, Virgil fell backwards onto the part of the mattress that was covered by the bath towel and his little laughing snuffles were replaced by loud, melodic giggles.

Logan could not tear his gaze away from the sheer happiness on Virgil’s face. The sound of his laughter was joyful, babyish and utterly adorable.

Without even having to think about it, his hand was softly cupping Virgil’s cheek.

‘Aha, success!’ Patton cried triumphantly. Logan noted out of the corner of his eye that he was leaning down to collect the diaper products. With a rush of pride, Logan realised Patton had planned the ticklish interlude perfectly to avoid exacerbating Virgil’s anxiety about the diaper change. How ingenious!

‘You need baby giggles before you change your baby,’ Patton said quite seriously. ‘It’s baby law.’

Logan chuckled at the way Virgil rolled his head on the bed and looked to him with wide eyes, clearly seeking his confirmation. ‘I do believe I read that somewhere, yes.’

‘Okay, I think we’re ready,’ Patton muttered.

The slight nervousness to his tone would have been undetectable to Virgil, though Logan heard it loud and clear. He could not deny there might have been some relevance to it. It was all very well Virgil agreeing to wear a diaper, though Logan doubted in his current headspace that the regressor would have considered the fact that it involved Patton actually changing him into one, which was an unavoidably invasive task. Given what Logan had heard of Virgil’s reaction when Patton first started bathing him, he was not oblivious enough to think that this would go entirely smoothly.

‘Your papa is going to change you now,’ Logan said, smiling reassuringly at the nervous look that snapped onto him. ‘Would you like me to leave?’

Virgil whimpered and quickly shuffled over on the bed to hide his face against Logan’s hip. Not for the first time that day, and what Logan was beginning to think would not be the last, he felt his heart practically burst at Virgil’s sudden attachment to him.

‘All right, little one. I don’t have to go,’ he murmured, stroking his hand once over Virgil’s hair before encouraging him to lie back down on the towel. ‘Mama will stay right here.’

‘Baby, I’m going to take off your pants and underwear now,’ Patton announced softly and promptly unfastened the button on Virgil’s jeans. He clearly thought delaying the process would not be beneficial.

Virgil’s eyes flitted anxiously between Patton’s hands and Logan’s face. With a slight ache in his chest, Logan heard a shaky whimper as Patton began tugging the clothing down Virgil’s hips. 

‘Shh, it’s all right, sweetheart,’ Patton whispered.

It did not seem to placate the boy whose chest started to rise and fall more quickly, so Logan made a snap decision. He shuffled himself around on the mattress so that he was sitting right by Virgil’s hip and facing his head. Then he leaned sideways slightly over Virgil’s torso to block the regressor’s view of his lower half.

‘Why don’t you pick a toy to hold, Virgil?’ Logan suggested, being sure to keep his eyes fixed on Virgil’s face where the regressor was viciously pulling at the handle of his pacifier.

‘That’s a good idea!’ Patton said from behind him. It sounded like he was struggling a little getting Virgil’s skinny jeans off of his legs. ‘Who do you think needs a cuddle today, honey?’

Virgil’s worried eyes looked up at Logan. ‘Minpy?’

‘Minty is having a bath right now,’ Logan explained gently, thinking of the toy that was currently in the laundry due to being wet from Virgil’s accident the day previously. ‘Can you pick another friend?’

Virgil’s eyebrows pulled down slightly, and it looked like he was struggling to say something. Then Logan heard the distinctive sound of his clothes being pulled off from his legs and suddenly Virgil’s face was hidden behind his hands. A muffled whimper broke Virgil’s silence.

‘It’s okay, sweetheart, Mama can pick for you,’ Logan quickly reassured and leaned over the bed to grab a soft toy - Virgil’s pink stuffed pig. ‘Look who it is, Vee!’

Virgil peeked over his fingers to see the toy that Logan was holding out in front of him. ‘Pigwet?’

Logan smiled encouragingly and pushed the toy into Virgil’s hands. The pacifier handle was dropped in favour of squeezing the soft toy.

‘Baby,’ Patton said carefully, out of sight, ‘I know it’s scary, but I really need you to uncurl your legs so Papa can get you changed quickly.’

Virgil’s head shook quickly on the mattress and his fingers squeezed his toy fiercely.

‘You can do it, Virgil.’ Logan placed his hand on Virgil’s shoulder and ran his thumb in soothing circles over Virgil’s bare skin. ‘Shall we be brave for Papa?’

Piglet rose up to Virgil’s chin and covered the lower half of his face, but Logan could see the nervousness in his wide eyes. Eventually there was a muffled sound of movement and Virgil began trembling lightly.

‘Good boy,’ Patton praised quietly, then there was some distinctive rustling and Logan knew the diaper must have been unfolded.

‘Shall we have a little chat?’ Logan asked Virgil, smoothing his hands over the regressor’s shoulders in comfort. At a shaky nod, he started trying to distract the boy as best he could. ‘Can you tell me who Piglet’s best friend is?’

‘Wimmie?’ Virgil murmured alongside some crinkling sounds as his body was shuffled slightly. Patton must have laid the diaper beneath him.

‘That’s right,’ Logan nodded with a smile and squeezed Virgil’s shoulders. ‘Winnie the Pooh helps keep Piglet calm, doesn’t he?’

The unmistakable scent of diaper cream hit Logan’s nose followed by the sound of hands rubbing together.

‘Papa,’ Virgil whined and clenched his eyes shut, hugging his toy tightly to his chest.

‘You’re doing so well, sweetie!’ Patton’s tone was exaggerated and emotive, the words practically leaking with pride. ‘This might be a bit cold. Can you keep talking to Mama for me?’

‘Quick, Vee, I need your help,’ Logan immediately pleaded, rubbing his hands firmly up and down Virgil’s arms in an attempt to distract him from what was happening below his waist. ‘I can’t remember the name of the stripy orange character in Winnie the Pooh.’

‘B-Bipper.’ Virgil’s voice was garbled by his pacifier and choked by unshed tears.

‘Oh, of course, Tigger!’ Logan thoroughly disliked how Virgil’s face was pinched in fear. ‘Does Tigger like to… run?’

The mattress jiggled with how rapidly Virgil shook his head.

‘No?’ Logan feigned surprise. ‘If he doesn’t like to run, what does he like to do?’

‘Bounth,’ Virgil squeaked, his eyes still firmly shut.

As the smell of baby powder filled the room, Logan breathed a gentle sigh of relief, letting up in his stroking on Virgil’s arms. It seemed the most invasive part of the change was over. ‘Does he like to bounce?’

Virgil nodded and his eyes finally opened hesitantly.

‘And trounce?’ A series of crinkling sounds met his ears and informed him that Patton must have been working to fasten the diaper now.

It was a true delight, watching Virgil’s furrowed features morph into a gentle smile. He nodded again.

Logan couldn’t help but return the soft expression. ‘And flounce?’

Virgil giggled quietly, squeezing Piglet tighter. This time it was in anticipation as opposed to anxiety.

‘And pounce?!’ Logan gasped as if scandalised. It had the desired effect in eliciting laughter from Virgil and causing his body to shake as he kicked his legs lightly in excitement. It was ridiculously endearing.

‘Hey,’ Patton chuckled softly. ‘I’m trying to tape you up, baby. Try not to kick Papa.’ His voice quickly lowered to mutter to himself thoughtfully, ‘Now why didn’t that stick?’ 

‘Did you hear that, Vee?’ Logan cupped one of Virgil’s cheeks in his palm with a proud smile. ‘Nearly done.’

The cheek in his hand bunched up as Virgil smiled widely. ‘Mama!’

Virgil then reached up with one hand to bat playfully at Logan’s tie (much like a kitten, the caregiver thought) then simply held onto the end of it.

The grip was gentle and only tugged very slightly at the tie. Logan internally deliberated whether there was any physical explanation for the way the action seemed to tug at his heart, too.

Before he even had the chance to attempt to speak in a steady voice, the sound of various sticky rips caused Logan to turn around (he eased Virgil’s hand from his tie to allow him better movement, though kept his own fingers intertwined with his baby’s). He caught a glimpse of Patton struggling to separate two diaper tapes that had stuck together, biting his lip with a frown.

‘Do you require assistance, Patton?’ Logan asked carefully, wary that Patton’s face was pulled into quite an atypical look of frustration.

The harshness to his expression faded away in an instant and Patton’s gaze inched up to Logan with a shy smile. ‘Maybe a bit.’

Logan nodded and released Virgil’s hand (much to the regressor’s distress) to shuffle off of the mattress. Looking at the white fingerprints on the diaper tapes, it became obvious that Patton had struggled with them due to the cream and powder on his fingers. ‘Why don’t you go and wash your hands?’

There was a definite hesitance in the moral side, but after a couple of moments he acquiesced. ‘All right. I’ll be right back, my adorable little baby!’

Before leaving Patton leaned over the mattress to press a firm kiss to Virgil’s nose and the boy giggled and squished Patton’s cheeks in response. 

As Patton hurried out from the room (squealing quietly all the way), Logan got to work on the diaper. Easily enough Logan managed to fasten the tapes tightly, though it did take a couple of tries.

‘All done, sweetheart!’ Logan announced cheerfully. After tugging slightly at the hips to ensure the diaper was secure enough around Virgil, Logan leaned back to take in the sight.

If he were to be honest with himself, he had not expected to feel anything other than indifferent to Virgil’s new attire. When ordering the diapers online, Patton had gushed about the various designs being cute, though Logan was unsure as to how he was meant to see incontinence products as anything more than purely functional, and therefore neutral.

Looking down at Virgil now, he was forced to abandon his initial expectations. The deep purple of the diaper was a stark contrast to Virgil’s pale, freckled skin, and the thick padding of it somehow, inexplicably, was indisputably adorable to Logan. Of course, he had known that Virgil would give off the impression of being younger due to the connotations of infancy associated with diapers. Though that did not explain how Virgil’s eyes were wider and sparkling with babyish innocence, how his face looked softer, and how his words suddenly made even less sense than they normally did when he was little.

‘Mamamaba,’ Virgil babbled and shook his soft toy in the air above his head.

Logan smiled gently and settled back beside Virgil on the mattress. ‘What was that, Vee?’

Bright eyes crinkled with happiness as they settled on him. ‘Agaga!’

Logan’s mouth dropped open. ‘Oh my goodness, have you regressed even younger?’ he asked in disbelief, fully aware that Virgil would be unable to answer.

The surprise in Logan’s tone appeared to upset Virgil. He whined and dropped Piglet on the bed to make grabby hands at Logan.

As his mind reeled at the unexpected shift in Virgil’s headspace, Logan gently pulled Virgil up into a sitting position. The diaper crinkled softly against the mattress with every small movement and Logan found the sound to be quite comforting. It reminded him that this was the time to be taking care of his and Patton’s baby and so prevented his mind from thinking about anything else. He was sure the noise alone would be able to trigger his caregiver headspace in the future purely by association.

Virgil made a small hum and wriggled his hips slightly, eliciting more rustling noises. It wasn’t until Logan noted Virgil’s blush and slow blinking which accompanied the sounds that he realised what had caused this further slip.

‘Lo, is he feeling okay?’ Patton’s worried voice came from the doorway. Within seconds Patton was by the bed, pressing his (now clean) hand against Virgil’s forehead, supposedly to feel for a temperature. ‘What’s wrong, sweetheart?’

With a whine, Virgil ducked away from the touch and instead pushed his face against Logan’s chest. There were more loud crinkles as the regressor shuffled clumsily on the bed, trying to get closer to his caregiver.

A quiet chuckle escaped Logan as he wrapped his arms around Virgil and pulled him onto his lap. Virgil’s legs instantly wrapped around his hips and his arms clung to his shoulders. The image of a koala popped into Logan’s mind.

‘He is perfectly all right,’ Logan murmured, quite stunned and unable to pull his gaze away from where Virgil clung to him. ‘I believe the feeling of wearing a diaper has merely pushed him into a younger headspace.’

_‘Younger?’_ Patton echoed. ‘Like… an even tinier baby?’

Logan’s hand smoothed over Virgil’s hair and earned him a soft sigh. For one reason or another, tears sprung to Logan’s eyes and he rapidly blinked to be rid of them. ‘Apparently so.’

He looked up from Virgil just in time to see the worry ebb off of Patton’s face and be replaced by joyful disbelief. His gaze swept down to settle on the boy bundled in Logan’s arms and his eyes suddenly sparkled with utter adoration. It took Logan’s breath away.

‘Oh gosh, I - this -’ Patton squeaked, though he paused and took a deep breath to calm himself. It didn’t seem to work. ‘He is so frickin’ adorable!’

‘I have to agree,’ Logan smiled softly.

Patton quickly scooched closer to both of them and ducked slightly to be able to see Virgil’s face. ‘Hello there, tiny baby! Aren’t you just the cutest little thing?’

Light embarrassment was to be expected in Virgil, as he so often blushed when he sunk into his regression or when his caregivers complimented him. Though the way Virgil whimpered and hurriedly buried his face into Logan’s shoulder reflected how he reacted when he was shy around someone unfamiliar (such as when he had first voluntarily been regressed around Roman, or when Janus had walked in on family time a month previously).

The reaction was quite a shock, given the fact that the person Virgil had just hidden from was his own Papa.

From his position above the pair, Logan had the perfect view of Patton’s excited adoration being drowned out by a sudden flash of hurt in his eyes.

Logan was quick to try to rectify Virgil’s unknowing action. ‘Patton, it is just because he is -’

‘Let’s get you dressed, sweetpea!’ Patton announced, hastily jumping to his feet as if the mattress had burned him. He snatched up two items of clothing from the bed.

‘It is only because of his further slip,’ Logan pressed on, absently running his hands over Virgil’s bare back. The regressor seemed entirely unaware of what was happening, and Logan could not help but be grateful.

It was quiet as Patton froze in place, looking quite longingly down to where Virgil sat in Logan’s lap, then back to Logan with a reluctance behind his eyes.

‘He is just a bit more shy because it is a new experience,’ Logan spoke soothingly, looking Patton directly in the eyes to convey sincerity. ‘I am sure of it.’

Patton’s Adam's apple bobbed with a gulp. His watery eyes flitted between Logan and the clothes that were clenched in his hands. Then, at last, his shoulders dropped and a hesitant smile twisted his lips.

‘I’m sorry, I just… freaked out a bit.’ He flopped back down onto the mattress at Logan’s side with a long sigh.

‘It is understandable,’ Logan whispered. Without jostling Virgil too much, he shuffled closer to Patton on the bed so that their legs were touching and bumped his shoulder against Patton’s side softly. Then he looked to Virgil and squeezed him lightly as he asked, ‘Vee? Do you love your papa?’

Though he did not say anything in response, Virgil’s excessive head nodding was unmistakable.

Patton laughed quite unevenly and Logan’s gaze snapped back to see his lip wobbling through a smile.

‘See, he loves you.’ On a whim, one of Logan’s hands left Virgil’s back to gently cup Patton’s cheek and angle his head to look at him. ‘We both do.’

A shaky exhale blew from Patton’s lips and tickled at Logan’s throat. ‘I love you both too.’

Then their lips were locked in a gentle, quick kiss. Logan was unsure who had initiated it; it was almost as if they were magnets being drawn together without need for free will.

As Patton pulled back, Logan suddenly became aware of the weight of the boy on his lap. With wide eyes, as well as noticing the rising flush on Patton’s cheeks, Logan looked down to check on Virgil. He remained unchanged and seemed perfectly happy simply snuggling into Logan’s shoulder. There was no indication he had noticed the kiss at all.

With a note of relief that he was sure Patton shared, the two caregivers exchanged warm smiles for a moment. Then Patton fell back into what Logan assumed was routine.

‘Okey dokey,’ Patton practically sang as he jumped back up from the bed with a giddy spring to his step. (Logan couldn’t help the swell of pride at the knowledge that he himself caused such a dramatic turn in Patton’s mood.) ‘Loganberry, can you turn the baby around so he can choose some clothes?’

Logan wrapped his arms around Virgil tightly and whispered to him, ‘Here we go, sweetheart.’

With one arm around his shoulders and another carefully positioned beneath the diaper, he lifted Virgil slightly and shuffled him around to sit sideways in his lap. There was no protest, Virgil only hummed and suckled on his pacifier more quickly.

‘Hi there, cutie pie,’ Patton cooed with a gentle smile. ‘Do you want to wear the Sesame Street t-shirt -’ he held the named garment up, and then raised another ‘- or the Eeyore onesie?’

Without being able to see Virgil’s expression from above his head, Logan was unsure as to whether he was silently deliberating or simply did not understand the question. Though after a while, the boy’s head lifted from his chest and Virgil’s eyes pleaded silently with Logan.

‘You can pick whichever one you want, Vee,’ Logan assured with a nod.

It took a trifle more coaxing via Logan squeezing his shoulders and Patton stroking his cheek, but eventually Virgil shyly pointed to the blue onesie.

‘Of course, my little stormcloud!’ Patton beamed, starting to bunch the leg of the onesie up in his hands.

‘I see there’s a Winnie the Pooh theme going on today.’ Logan reached out for the abandoned Piglet toy on the mattress and pressed it back into Virgil’s hands.

Virgil squeaked in surprise and wrapped his fingers around the toy, holding it tightly to his chest.

‘Aw, maybe we can have a Winnie the Pooh party!’ Patton cried happily. ‘Won’t that be fun, honey?’ He bent down to ease Virgil’s feet into the legs of the onesie as the regressor nodded lightly. 

‘Up we go!’ Patton pulled the onesie up Virgil’s legs swiftly, then dropped the bundle of fabric at his lap. ‘Okay, Mama, your turn.’

Knowing instinctively the task that had been handed to him, Logan very slowly slipped Virgil off of his lap and onto the mattress. The regressor instantly started whining. His upset only became more pronounced when Patton took Piglet from his hands.

At that, Virgil’s whines became loud whimpers, the sound so genuine that it broke Logan’s heart. He could absolutely relate to the sad wince on Patton’s face.

‘Aw, I know, baby,’ Patton cooed sympathetically and held the toy in his own hands in clear sight of Virgil. He likely did not want Virgil to think the toy had fallen out of existence given the boy’s reduced understanding of object permanence.

‘It’s only for a moment, sweetheart,’ Logan whispered and wasted no time in grasping the rest of the onesie. He manoeuvred it over Virgil’s diaper (the fabric sliding easily over the smooth material) then up his torso. Virgil had been rubbing at one of his eyes with a fist quite tiredly before Logan took his hand and guided it into a sleeve. ‘Are you feeling sleepy, little one?’

There was no verbal response, Virgil only sniffled lightly while Logan slipped the last onesie sleeve onto him. His body was incredibly lax and put up no complaint to being dressed. He truly must have been in an infant’s headspace to have little to no awareness or care for being moved around so much. Logan struggled to ascertain an exact age, though made a mental note to observe more behaviours as the day went on.

Patton was pulling up the front zipper of the onesie and paused halfway to scribble his finger over Virgil’s bare ribs, apparently unable to resist the temptation. The action shook Virgil from his lethargic haze as the regressor writhed and giggled. The laughter was distinctly airier than usual.

‘There he is,’ Patton smiled, pulling the zipper up the rest of the way. Piglet was back in Virgil’s grasp within seconds. ‘Are you a happy baby?’

Purple hair fell into his face as Virgil nodded firmly.

Logan carded his fingers through the bangs to reveal Virgil’s happy expression. ‘Do you like the diaper?’ (He knew the answer but thought it would benefit Virgil to admit it to himself to reinforce the positive experience.)

Virgil’s eyes swept down to his lap as if he could see the diaper through his onesie. A blush visibly overtook him and his knees pulled up to his chest tightly as he nodded.

Seeing Virgil so affected by the diaper in an overwhelmingly positive way filled Logan with immense joy. And Virgil being curled up into a small ball of soft blue fabric supplemented by his rosy cheeks and his glittering lilac pacifier made Logan’s chest physically ache in both a pleasing and a hurtful way. The sensation was something akin to Thomas’ reaction whenever he saw a small puppy; all Logan wanted at that moment was to pick Virgil up and cradle him to his chest and rock him and never let him touch the ground, where so many things could hurt him. It was an adoration of Virgil’s sweetness, though simultaneously an awareness of his vulnerability and hence Logan’s own responsibility to keep him safe from all manner of threats.

‘You are adorable,’ Logan stated solemnly.

‘Yes, he is,’ Patton agreed and pinched softly at Virgil’s cheek with a bright grin.

Virgil promptly pulled Piglet up in front of his face - though Logan could still spy his dimple peeking from around the toy. It was cute that Virgil was so embarrassed by their attention but, even so, Logan felt robbed by not being able to see his reaction. So, naturally, he concocted a plan.

‘I suppose if I can’t kiss Virgil’s head I will have to settle for Piglet’s.’ Logan leaned forward and pressed a firm, loudly exaggerated kiss to Piglet’s head. ‘Mwah!’

The stuffed pig was slowly lowered and Virgil’s mismatched eyes peeked hesitantly over it at Logan. ‘Kith?’

‘Oh, would you like a forehead kiss too?’ Logan asked in mock-surprise.

Virgil nodded and dropped Piglet to his lap. He closed his eyes and held his head forward in preparation. Not making him wait for more than a second, Logan pressed a soft peck to Virgil’s forehead, cupping his jaw gently. He was happy to hear a hum of content leave Virgil’s lips before he pulled away.

‘Okay, you two need to stop being so sweet,’ Patton whispered brokenly. Logan’s head snapped around, surprised to see tears dripping down Patton's cheek, which stretched with a smile. ‘I can’t take it.’

Despite the sight of Patton’s tears causing him to falter, only one word blared through Logan’s brain as he gazed upon him; _love._

‘Patton, are you -’

A hand waved through the air flippantly. ‘No, no, I’m fine. Just…’ Patton’s face adorned quite a sappy smile. ‘I just love you. Both of you. _All_ of you. Oh my gosh, let’s get Roman to come to our Pooh party as well!’

‘Wo-Wo!’ Virgil cried excitedly and bounced lightly in his seat.

‘Shall we go get your big brother?’ Patton asked and held Virgil’s hand (the one that wasn’t currently clutching Piglet as if he feared the soft toy would jump out of his grasp and run away). He tugged Virgil up gently, as gentle as they always did when he was regressed, though Logan watched on as Virgil instantly lost his balance.

He swayed precariously for half a second before tumbling back down onto the mattress. Logan quickly caught his back and ensured he did not fall backwards and hit his head on the wall.

‘Are you all right, Vee?’ Logan was certainly not panicked over such a subtle fall, though his tone of voice did not exactly say as much.

After a couple of blinks and a slight frown, Virgil looked up to Logan and held his arms out with a muffled whine.

Logan realised that being in his younger headspace meant Virgil was even less able to stand and walk than he usually was while regressed (and that really was saying something). It should not have been a shock given Virgil’s decreased awareness. Plus, the thick padding of the diaper must have had some effect on his ability to move his legs so freely.

He was wary of making assumptions where Virgil’s desires were concerned, however, so Logan did his best to keep to sheer excitement from his tone when he asked: ‘Do you need Mama to carry you?’

Virgil merely whined again and flexed the fingers of his free hand, looking almost betrayed by Logan’s lack of action.

It was difficult to conceal an idiotically large smile as he stood from the mattress and leant down to carefully lift Virgil onto his hip, though Logan somehow managed. He was not so successful in hiding his delight when he held Virgil securely in his arms and the regressor’s head dropped to his shoulder with a little sigh.

‘Oh, wow, you’re strong,’ Patton mumbled, his eyes fixed on Logan’s hold on Virgil. There was a faint pink tint to his cheeks.

Logan was quick to shrug the statement off, ‘He is surprisingly light.’

‘Still…’ Patton’s gaze crawled up to Logan’s face and he smiled quite coyly.

Logan pretended the way he readjusted his hold on Virgil was to keep him secure, though really he just had to concentrate on something that wasn’t how attractive Patton’s smirk was. It wasn’t hard. The weight of Virgil in his arms commanded his attention and, despite the physical weighing down of his body, he felt as if his heart soared when Virgil buried his nose into his shoulder and snuffled a little.

‘Why don’t I take Virgil to the living room while you get our little prince?’ he suggested.

Patton’s eyes fell to Virgil and he sighed slightly before nodding. With a brief delay, he reached out to stroke Virgil’s hair once before leading the way out of the bedroom and to the staircase.

‘See you two in a bit,’ Patton murmured at the top of the stairs then began his way down the hallway. There was a slight falter in his footsteps before he quietly called back, ‘Love you, baby.’

‘Wuvoo,’ Virgil murmured and snuggled further against Logan’s shoulder. It seemed to satisfy Patton as his footsteps started back up again, taking him away in the direction of Roman’s room.

‘Down we go,’ Logan announced, beginning their descent down the stairs.

They were not three steps down when Virgil suddenly started squirming. It was weak and Logan’s hold was firm so there was no damage done, though it did increase their chances of having a fall.

‘Sweetheart, I need you to stop moving. Can you please do that for Mama?’

After another couple of steps, Virgil’s wriggling did not cease and was joined by gentle whimpers.

‘Are you scared?’ A louder whimper. ‘Why are you scared, little one?’

‘Mama fall!’ Virgil whined with a frantic edge to his tone.

Logan’s arms squeezed around him. ‘I won’t fall, sweetheart. I promise I'll keep you safe.’ Virgil’s anxious movements swiftly came to an end as Logan pressed a firm kiss to the top of his head. ‘I’ll always keep my baby safe.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Logan: Orang  
> Vee: Orang  
> Logan: Utan  
> Vee: Utan  
> Logan: Orangutan!  
> Vee: Amagabab!  
> Patton, sobbing: Our baby is a genius (༎ຶ⌑༎ຶ)
> 
> Seriously, the diaper change scene was the entire reason I wrote this fic - I’ve had it planned out for two months and I just knew I had to make a whole story leading up to it! (Which incidentally has turned into a plan for an entire series? Thank you, brain!)
> 
> I’m so ready to bring Roman back in the next chapter, I missed my dramatic child :(
> 
> Feel free to gush in the comments or over on my tumblr: [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/) ♡
> 
> Only one more chapter left, babies! Holy moly!!


	7. Sweet and Sour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton feels bittersweet, Virgil likes rattles, Roman wants milk, and Logan bottle-feeds the baby.

‘Love you, baby,’ Patton called back to the staircase. He remained completely still, waiting in nervous anticipation and praying that he would hear a response.

Then, thankfully, a tiny, ‘Wuvoo,’ returned and it soothed the ache in his chest slightly.

With a far more relieved sigh than he would have liked to admit, Patton continued his journey to Roman’s bedroom. He could hear Logan murmuring words of comfort to Virgil, and there was simply no excuse for the way it twisted Patton’s stomach. Wasn’t he the one who was so eager to get Virgil to overcome his separation anxiety? Wasn’t he the one who had encouraged various activities that would hopefully have resulted in Logan being more at ease with the act of caregiving?

And yet seeing Virgil have no negative response to Patton leaving him and cuddling up to Logan had kindled a bitter fire in Patton's stomach that, try as he might, he could not snuff out. 

Seeing Virgil literally shy away from Patton had been heartwrenching. His own baby, hiding from him.

Patton swallowed past the aching lump in his throat as he approached Roman’s door. It would be no good to cry in front of his little prince.

‘Kiddo,’ Patton called with a gentle knock on the door. When there was no answer, he spoke through the wood louder, ‘Roman, are you okay?’

After a few seconds of silence, Patton threw the door open, scared that Roman was hurt.

The prince was merely hunched over his workbench, obviously deep in concentration.

‘Darling, I’m coming over,’ Patton said louder, approaching the workbench.

The lack of response didn’t surprise him. It wasn’t uncommon for Roman to be so engrossed in a project that he lost awareness of his surroundings. Worrying as he had first found the state, Logan had carefully explained to Patton that this was known as “hyperfocus” and as long as they checked on Roman to make sure he wasn’t foregoing his basic needs, it could be entirely healthy. Patton caught a quick glimpse of purple and black material in Roman’s hands before patting his shoulder to get his attention.

Roman instantly yelped and threw himself on top of the bench, hiding the pile of fabric under his torso. ‘Don’t look!’

Without a moment’s hesitation, Patton slapped his hands over his eyes. ‘Okay, I’m not looking, I’m not looking!’ He wouldn’t overstep his son’s boundaries.

‘Oh, it’s just you. It’s cool, Padre, you can look. I just finished!’

When Patton pulled his fingers down, the workbench was clear of the body that had laid across it so hastily before. He noticed that the fabric Roman had been working on was rather familiar.

‘Is that… Virgil’s hoodie?’

‘It’s a junior version!’ Roman proudly proclaimed, holding up an exact replica of Virgil’s hoodie - besides the fact that it was missing the drawstrings and the zipper. And it was only big enough for a newborn baby.

Patton smiled encouragingly and did his best to be gentle when he said, ‘That’s beautiful, Ro. But Virgil isn’t physically a baby, I’m not sure he can fit into that.’

‘It’s not for Vee,’ Roman chuckled, then reached to the other side of his workbench and held up a pile of grey fluff. Patton recognised it instantly.

‘You fixed Meeko!’

Roman nodded. ‘I made him a little hoodie so him and Virge can match. And…’ As Roman shook the toy slightly, a faint rattle sounded from it.

‘Oh my gosh,’ Patton gasped through a wide smile, ‘he’s a rattle!’ Virgil would love it!

The smile on Roman’s face was a little shyer than was normal for the usually confident creative side. He dressed Meeko in the hoodie with nimble fingers. ‘Just, you know,’ Roman stalled by fidgeting with the plaid hood on the toy, ‘to say sorry for yesterday, I guess.’

Patton fought to retain the genuity of his smile. Apparently everyone was maturing besides him. Virgil had seemingly overcome his separation anxiety, Logan had learned to be more affectionate with his boys, and now even Roman was learning to apologise for teasing his brother. And that only made the bitter concoction of jealousy and dejection in Patton’s belly bubble away all the more viciously. In spite of that:

‘That’s wonderful, sweetheart,’ Patton beamed. ‘He’s going to love it.’

‘Yeah!’ Roman agreed enthusiastically, jumping up from his seat. His shyness had apparently been chased away by Patton’s praise. ‘Where is he? I wanna give it to him!’

‘He’s in the living room with Logan. We’re about to have a family Winnie the Pooh party!’

‘Oh, okay,’ Roman muttered, turning away. ‘I’ll just give it to him after, then.’

It wasn’t the excited response Patton had expected from Roman. Both of the boys loved Winnie the Pooh. Patton thought Roman would have been bouncing off of the walls by now. ‘Don’t you want to come to the party?’

‘Am I invited?’ Roman spun around and looked at Patton with wide eyes, finally appearing excited about the idea.

Did Roman think they were leaving him out? With a frown, Patton said, ‘Sweetheart, it’s family time.’

What really broke Patton’s heart was the way Roman deflated at that.

‘Of course you’re invited.’ Patton held his arms open wide. ‘Come here.’

Honestly, the cuddle wasn’t optional. Whether or not Roman had moved over to him, Patton would have been wrapping his arms around his little prince as tight as he could bear. Though the haste with which Roman launched himself into Patton’s arms did make it a whole lot easier.

‘You’re just as much a part of this family as any of us, little prince.’ Patton pressed a firm kiss to Roman’s temple.

‘I’m part of the family,’ Roman whispered into Patton’s shoulder. It was spoken like he didn’t believe it and was willing the phrase into his mind.

Patton squeezed him tighter to match the squeezing of his heart. His own son had not believed he was part of the family. How could Patton have allowed such a thing? Why hadn’t he noticed? Had he failed Roman as a Dad?

It wasn’t until Roman winced and ducked away from his hand that Patton realised he had been running his fingers through Roman’s very precious and carefully-styled hair.

‘Hey, watch the locks, Pops!’ The hug was broken as Roman stepped back.

And normally that was fine. Normally, Patton didn’t bat a single eyelash to how protective Roman was over his hair. He would just giggle, pull his hand back, and move on. But right now that had stung far more than he was able to explain. Especially to Roman’s concerned look.

‘Patton, are you okay?’

Biting his lip, Patton made a timid request: ‘Do you… Could you be little right now, Ro?’

He didn’t blame Roman for being shocked by the question. He never pushed Roman’s littlespace. It was different with Virgil; it was part of Patton’s job as his caregiver to incite his regression if he noticed the younger side was particularly anxious or overwhelmed. But Roman’s littlespace was entirely on his terms; it was voluntary and not necessarily done to relieve him of emotional distress in any way. Roman was the only one to decide when he became a child.

So was it selfish of Patton to ask for it?

‘I’m sorry. Don’t worry about it.’ Patton shook his head and looked to the floor. ‘Your silly old dad is just -’

‘Hi, Dad!’ Roman quickly interjected. He always greeted everyone again when he became little, and Patton always found it adorable. ‘I’m little now!’

With a rush of comfort, Patton looked up to see that Roman’s face was indeed overtaken by the familiar childish excitement. This was what felt right to him, no matter what. He couldn’t always handle the feelings that swirled around in his belly, but, by Jove, Patton could handle taking care of his little ones.

‘Hey there, sweetie pie! How’s my favourite little prince doing?’

‘Good!’ Roman bounced in place with a bright grin. ‘I really wanna give Vee his present! And then I’m gonna get him to bounce with me like Tigger! Th-then - then - then we can go on an expotition!’

It was a struggle not to melt into an adoring puddle on the spot. The slight stuttering informed Patton that Roman was incredibly excited, and it was just adorable that it was because he wanted to be with his baby brother. But there was the issue of Virgil’s newly younger mental age.

‘That sounds super fun, Ro,’ Patton agreed. ‘But I’m not sure if Virgil will be able to do all of that with you.’

Witnessing Roman go still and slump in on himself was a true tragedy. ‘How come?’

‘Your Mom and I did something new with him and it made him regress a bit younger,’ Patton explained, praying that this would not rekindle in Roman any jealousy of his little brother. ‘I think he will need lots of quiet and lots of cuddles. Do you think you can be a good big brother and be extra gentle around him today?’ Then Patton added, ‘He’s going to need a really good role model to look up to,’ remembering that he read something about using this phrase to help older siblings feel better about a baby in the family.

‘Yeah!’ Roman yelled. If anything he appeared even more excited after this revelation. His hand smacked over his mouth as he realised his mistake. ‘Oops, sorry.’ A muffled giggle came through his fingers, followed by an exaggerated whisper of, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna be the bestest brother ever-est.’

Patton chuckled and reached out to huddle Roman into his arms again. ‘That’s already true, baby.’

He was thankful that Roman simply hugged him back, and didn’t comment on the new nickname that had slipped through Patton’s lips quite unconsciously.

The hug did not last for nearly as long as Patton would have liked, but Roman was clearly eager to see his brother and was all but vibrating on the spot. Even if he had tried, Patton was sure he wouldn’t have been able to hold him back.

‘Hang on, sweetie,’ Patton called as Roman dragged him to the door. ‘How long have you been working on Meeko?’

Roman paused and frowned thoughtfully as he looked down at the toy in his hand. It was clear after a few seconds that he had lost track of time while working. It was a fairly common occurrence.

‘Do you remember when you started?’

‘Before lunch,’ Roman said quite proudly.

So Roman had been working, likely nonstop, for about 5 hours, Patton realised. It was important that he kept his worry from showing on his face as that might have made Roman think he was disappointed with him. He wasn’t at all, he just needed to make sure Roman was healthy. ‘Okay, little prince, let’s stop by the bathroom before we go down and I’ll get you some juice in a bit. Did you eat?’

Roman pointed to a plate on his desk that had crumbs on it.

‘Good boy,’ Patton praised with a warm smile. He gave Roman one more tight hug before taking Roman’s free hand once more and leading them through the house.

After a short bathroom trip and with no small amount of rambling from Roman about how cool Tigger was, they continued on to the living room. As they approached the door, Patton could hear Logan speaking in a low, hushed tone - it was identical in tone to when he counted aloud to calm Virgil down, and Patton felt the strangest thrill that his baby might have missed him after all if he needed to be soothed.

‘Knock, knock,’ Patton announced as he led Roman into the living room.

He was not met with the sight of Virgil crying and reaching out to him as he was so used to seeing. Instead, he and Roman had apparently walked in on what looked to be an incredibly intimate moment between the baby and his mama.

Logan was sitting in the corner seat of the couch, reading from a large board book (which Patton did not recognise). In his lap, Virgil was curled up against his chest with his eyes closed and his pacifier bobbing slowly in his mouth. His fingers were wrapped around the handle loosely.

‘Pooh and his friends were still planting seeds when Kanga happened by,’ Logan read in a voice so soft it could have been a whisper.

No one got to hear what Kanga did next, as Logan suddenly noticed the two new presences in the room.

‘Oh,’ Logan murmured, his cheeks dusting a faint pink. ‘Greetings, you two.’

‘Hi, Mom!’

Patton quickly squeezed Roman’s hand to get his attention and mimed that Roman should keep his voice down because of the sleeping baby. ‘Remember what we talked about, honey?’ he gently reminded him.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Roman whispered, then looked over to the two on the couch. ‘Sorry, Vee.’

Virgil's eyes remained closed and he made no movement. It was a near-identical image to the way Patton had found them cuddling earlier. It was undeniably sweet, though this time it was quite tainted by the frustratingly persistent sinking feeling in Patton’s stomach. If nothing else, Patton could at least credit himself for focussing on the positive, and not letting his involuntary bitterness permeate into the atmosphere of the room.

‘Mama Logan has done it again,’ Patton whispered, dropping Roman’s hand and reaching into his pocket to bring out his phone. Jealousy or not, this had to be documented. ‘And you said  _ I  _ was the sleep siren.’

Logan looked down at the boy in his lap with a breathy chuckle. He closed the book in his hands. ‘I had no idea he was so sleepy.’

‘He wasn’t before,’ Patton hummed, snapping a couple of photos with a soft smile.

‘Perhaps the reading has tired him out,’ Logan suggested, though it sounded uncertain.

‘Nah, it’s ‘cause your voice is nice.’

Both Patton and Logan turned to Roman in surprise. Had Roman - who was typically nothing short of stubborn in admitting the merits of others - just complimented Logan?

Apparently oblivious to the reaction from his caregivers, Roman skipped over to the sofa - the poster boy of childish innocence. Sparing a moment to place the hoodie-clad Meeko on the armrest, Roman turned to the boy on Logan’s lap.

‘Hello, baby,’ he whispered. Then he slowly reached out to stroke his fingers over Virgil’s hair as gently as if he were handling the most fragile small animal.

Patton held his breath and pulled his lips into a tight line to avoid making any noises that betrayed his excitement. With a swift swipe on his phone screen, he began recording a video.

‘Are you being gentle with your little brother, Roman?’ At Logan’s sly side glance, Patton knew he had clocked the video recording.

On his screen, Patton saw Roman nod without looking away from his brother. ‘I’m being really soft, look.’ He raised his hand from Virgil’s hair and lowered it again to stroke it slowly.

It was indeed a gentle touch, as the younger side made no sign of waking or disturbance to his sleep. Roman looked up at Patton with joy sparkling in his eyes.

Patton resigned himself to the fate of having multiple adorableness-induced heart attacks a day.

‘Well done, little prince,’ Logan murmured. There was a blur of bright colour on the phone screen as Logan dropped the board book to the cushion, and the unfamiliar cover caught Patton’s attention as the logical side continued talking. ‘Virgil is a lot younger than usual today, so we need to be extra quiet and calm. In fact, I believe he’s only -’

‘Logan, where did you get that book?’ Patton interrupted.

Silence fell, only broken by Virgil sighing deeply in his sleep. The look of guilt on Logan’s face was displayed quite clearly on the phone screen. Patton looked over the device to see it even more prominent in real life.

‘I, um -’ Logan cleared his throat gently and shifted a little to duck his head into Virgil’s hair. The height difference being so uneven meant Logan only succeeded in hiding his chin. ‘I summoned it.’

Patton’s own shock was reflected in Roman’s dramatic gasp. He looked delighted at this news.

‘Mom summoned!’ Roman giggled, looking over to Patton with a mischievous smile. ‘Dad, Mom broke the rule!’

‘Quiet voices, sweetie,’ Patton whispered, though it was too late. The auto-focus of the camera blinked as Virgil’s body began shifting slightly on Logan’s lap.

‘Mama?’ 

Patton quickly buried his phone in his pocket, knowing that Virgil took after his Mama when it came to being shy on camera.

‘Mama’s here, sweetheart,’ Logan assured their littlest one.

Being a few feet away from the rest of his family, Patton had quite the vantage point to witness all of their reactions. And so the way Roman’s eyes snapped onto Logan when he had referred to Virgil as “sweetheart” was achingly obvious to Patton. As was the reason behind his sudden pout and his whinge of, ‘Dad, my legs are tired.’

It seemed Patton wasn’t the only one who had been bitten by the green-eyed monster that evening.

‘Poor little prince,’ Patton cooed and moved to sit on the couch beside Logan. He held his arms out to Roman. ‘Come here, cutie - oof!’

It was worth a few bruises on his thighs to have his 5’11” kiddo practically pounce onto his lap and send them both tumbling back against the couch cushion.

‘Baba,’ Virgil’s quiet voice babbled.

Patton pulled both him and Roman upright to look at his sweet baby. ‘Hello, tiny stormcloud.’

How exactly was Virgil tiredly rubbing at his eyes so adorable? Patton had long since given up trying to answer these sorts of questions. It just  _ was. _

‘Hey, Vee!’ Roman whispered loudly, waving at his brother. ‘You’re a smaller baby today.’

At his brother’s voice, Virgil pulled his hand back down to blink slowly at Roman. Without responding, he whined a little and dropped his head back to Logan’s chest. His Piglet toy hid his face.

‘It’s all right, Roman,’ Logan said soothingly, ‘Vee is just a little more shy than usual.’

‘Oh…’ After a moment of quiet, Roman leaned against Patton more heavily. ‘Okay.’

Patton tightened his arms around Roman to try to comfort him.

‘You summoned?’ he mouthed silently to Logan over Roman’s shoulder, unable to ignore it anymore. It was completely unheard of for Logan to break the house rule about summoning and bending reality only in emergencies. He was the one who had enforced the rule so strictly in the first place.

‘Uh, did you have something you wanted to give your brother, Roman?’ Logan blurted, entirely ignoring Patton despite clearly having seen the question.

Time froze for Patton as he saw Roman reach out to delicately hold Virgil’s shoulders, then lean forward and press a soft kiss to his head. Virgil hummed and lowered his toy to smile at Roman when he had pulled back.

‘Wo-Wo!’

‘Oh my gosh.’ It was a good thing Patton was already sitting down.

‘That was very lovely, little prince.’ Logan’s voice was far less squeaky than Patton’s. ‘But what about the friend that you put on the armrest?’

‘Oh yeah!’ Roman gasped, apparently unaware of his influence on Patton’s blood pressure.

Leaning over Logan’s lap (and causing Virgil to push further against Logan’s chest), Roman grabbed Meeko and hesitantly held the toy in front of Virgil. It seemed he had lost some confidence as he fidgeted with the stuffed raccoon. ‘Um, I fixed Meeko and gave him a cool hoodie like yours.’

It took a few seconds for Virgil to lift his head back off of Logan’s chest, but when he did his face lit up. Pale hands slowly dropped Piglet to the couch as Virgil timidly reached his hands out for the toy.

Once Roman had handed him the present, Virgil’s dimples popped up with a smile. ‘Burble.’

‘Clever baby,’ Patton cooed. ‘It’s purple just like your -’ he paused at Logan’s pointed look towards Roman, ‘- your favourite colour!’ He thought it was a pretty smooth save.

The truly endearing moment happened when Virgil hugged the toy tight and it rattled at the movement.

Virgil gasped through his pacifier and looked down at it in shock.

‘Oh my, what was that, Virgil?’ Logan asked, clearly feigning excitement for the baby’s benefit.

A more pronounced rattling sounded as Virgil shook the toy more energetically. Then he squealed in what Patton assumed was excitement. His body started bouncing lightly on Logan’s lap as he held the toy up to his mama’s ears and rattled it again.

‘That’s a nice sound,’ Logan agreed with an encouraging smile.

Then Virgil held the toy up to Roman’s ears and shook it again.

Roman giggled at his little brother’s antics. ‘It’s a rattle, Vee!’

At last, Virgil turned to Patton and held the toy up to him, whining, ‘Baba.’

Getting the hint, Patton leaned forward so that his ear was by the toy and Virgil rattled it loudly again. Patton was glad that his happy squeaks were loud enough that he could still hear them over the toy.

‘Do you like it, sweetie?’ Patton asked, sitting back to observe Virgil’s adorable wriggling. He still shook the toy with both hands and giggled.

‘Can you remember the word we say when someone gives us a present?’ Logan prompted.

Virgil just fell into Logan’s chest, suckling his pacifier as he kept rattling his toy.

‘Sweetheart,’ Logan whispered, his voice sounding a little scratchy, ‘can you say thank you to your brother?’

‘Wawaba,’ Virgil muttered as he played.

Looking back up at Roman with a smile, Logan translated, ‘Virgil says thank you.’

There was a slight crack in his voice and Patton reached out to rub his hand over Logan’s chest as he cleared it. ‘Are you getting a cold, Lo?’

‘No, I strained my voice while reading to him,’ Logan explained quietly, then sent a pleading glance to Patton. ‘Could you perhaps get me a drink?’

‘Of course, Loganberry. What would you like?’

‘Hot water with lemon would be perfect.’ Logan’s hand settled over Patton’s, holding it to his chest for a moment longer. ‘Thank you.’

‘Me too! Me too!’ Roman cried, waving his arm up in the air as if Patton wouldn’t be able to see him otherwise (despite the fact that he was acting as the creative side’s chair at that moment).

‘Yes, little prince.’ With no small amount of reluctance, Patton pulled his hand away from Logan’s chest and nudged Roman to get him off of his lap. ‘I’ll get you a sippy cup with apple juice.’

‘Perhaps Virgil would like a bottle of milk,’ Logan suggested.

Feeling a twinge of guilt at not having thought of that himself, Patton nodded and stood from the couch. Then he was stopped by Roman tugging on his wrist.

He turned back to the little with a questioning look. ‘Are you all right, little prince?’

Roman, strangely, looked shy. His eyes spared a side glance to Virgil (who was still rattling away and appearing completely enthralled by the sound) before they looked back up at Patton. ‘Can I have milk too?’

Though Logan didn’t make any kind of comment on the question, Patton could tell he was thinking the same thing as him. Roman was obviously getting jealous of Virgil and apparently wanted to act younger to combat that.

‘You can have whatever you like, sweetie,’ Patton said, patting Roman’s cheeks lightly and pressing a kiss to his forehead. When he pulled away he was glad to see the previous timidity replaced by happiness.

‘Warm milk and honey?’ Roman asked with an excited smile.

Patton returned it. ‘That sounds lovely. Do you want to stir in the honey yourself?’

‘Yes, please!’

Before leaving, Patton’s instinct was to reassure Virgil that he would be back within a few minutes. Though the baby’s attention was entirely held by the rattle. It would be best to slip out unnoticed and avoid any upset. (And avoid finding out if there would not be any upset.)

Making Logan and himself hot lemon water and heating the oat milk for the boys (he had sworn they still had a carton of Roman’s almond milk but he couldn’t find it anywhere), Patton had an opportunity to properly collect himself.

As he cut into a lemon, the rind burst with a spray of juice and the fresh scent of it rushed into Patton’s nose. It was intense and pulled at his chest as if a weight was attached to it and forcing him back to earth.

It took a moment for him to realise he must have been lost in his head with all of his insecurity and guilt. So Patton decided he needed to practise the mindfulness he and Logan always pushed so adamantly onto Virgil.

Remembering a grounding technique he had seen someone do on youtube, he cut a wedge of the fruit and without a moment’s hesitation, he bit into it - skin and all.

The bitterness attacked his taste buds and he winced, sinking his teeth further into the zesty flesh against his distaste. The juice stung a mouth ulcer that had been bothering him, but his head was suddenly crystal clear and his awareness sharp. He blew out a strong breath and tossed the wedge in the compost disposal, licking the last of the sour taste from his lips.

As he went back to stirring the oat milk, everything that had transpired over the past hour suddenly seemed so much less critical. Why had he been worried that Virgil no longer loved him? Of course he did! And Patton really was proud that Virgil had seemingly moved past the separation anxiety. It had proven to be less than ideal whenever Patton needed to go to the bathroom or make food, and any indication that his little stormcloud would suffer less from anxiety was positive.

Plus, seeing Virgil take to Logan so readily, and seeing Logan so comfortable in displaying affection was uplifting after the two’s awkward, rocky start when Logan had first become a caregiver. And Roman spending hours on fixing Meeko and adding the rattle to make his baby brother happy? That truly made Patton’s heart burst with love and pride for his little prince.

Ready to be back with his favourite people in the world, Patton returned to the living room with everyone’s drinks and the honey on a tray. Logan had evidently been reading to Virgil again as the regressor was slumped against his chest and blinking sleepily. Both Meeko and Piglet were huddled close to him as Logan’s soft voice filled the room.

It was a soothing image. Though it was tainted by Roman’s figure curled up on the other side of the couch, leaning away from the other two. The creative side was hunched over, resting his chin on his knees with a pout. 

‘Are you okay, Roman?’ Patton asked, walking carefully across to the coffee table where he placed the tray.

‘He wanted to play with Vee,’ Logan spoke for him, closing the board book once more. He continued despite the look of betrayal Patton could see crossing Roman’s face. ‘And I explained that Virgil is too young to bounce with him.’

‘But it’s a Winnie the Pooh party!’ Roman argued. ‘Tigger does loads of bouncing with Roo and Roo is really small.’

Patton smiled a little. The intention behind Roman’s suggestion was worthy of praise at least. ‘That’s very true. You’re so sweet to think of Virgil, honey.’

‘See!’ Roman stuck his tongue out at Logan.

‘But -’ Patton added, hating how Roman’s smile fell at the word, ‘- Piglet is very small too. And does Piglet like bouncing?’

After a few seconds of stubborn silence, Roman mumbled, ‘No.’

‘People don’t always like the same things, little prince. I’m sure you can think of something else you and Vee can do together.’

‘Of course he can,’ Logan agreed quietly, smoothing out a lock of Virgil’s hair that had stuck up from rubbing his head on Logan’s shoulder. ‘Roman is very creative and considerate, aren’t you, sweetheart?’

Roman absolutely beamed at the praise and lowered his legs back to the ground, sitting more upright. ‘Yeah, um, we can play with stuffies instead, Vee!’

The younger little raised his head at the suggestion seeming interested, but then he looked over at the coffee table and whined. The stuffies in his arms were hugged tighter.

‘I think we should have our drinks first,’ Patton said, understanding that Virgil wanted his bottle. ‘Can you be a big boy and come stir in everyone’s honey?’

Roman rushed over and, with Patton’s guidance, squeezed a good helping of honey into both Patton and Logan’s mugs and his sippy cup. When he reached for Virgil’s bottle to do the same, Patton quickly tugged his hand back. ‘No, sweetie, no honey for Vee.’

It was met with another whine from Virgil and a confused, ‘Why not?’ from Roman.

‘Babies can’t have honey,’ Patton explained easily with a hint of pride. He had done his research! ‘I read it online. It can make them sick and since Vee is a bit younger today, I thought just in case -’

‘Patton, my love,’ Logan’s voice interrupted him, much more low and gravelly than usual. It was probably because of his sore throat, but Patton couldn’t help but wish it made an appearance more often.

Did Logan even realise he had called Patton his love? The cool calmness of his features suggested otherwise. Patton himself could barely breathe at the term of endearment. He couldn’t imagine Logan consciously doing that and remaining completely calm.

‘Yes?’ Patton prompted, wishing Logan would repeat those words again.

‘Virgil may be a baby,’ Logan whispered his next words, ‘but he is not biologically infantile.’

Realisation slowly ebbed into Patton and he blushed. Perhaps he had gotten a little carried away in his baby research.

‘Give the poor boy some honey,’ Logan finished with an amused smile.

‘Sorry, I kind of forget.’ Patton giggled a bit at himself, unscrewing the lid of Virgil’s bottle to allow Roman to squeeze some honey into it.

‘Now we all match!’ Roman cried with a face splitting grin.

Swiping the honey bottle from his hand and squeezing a dab onto his fingertip, Patton replied, ‘We all match, my sweet little honeycomb.’ He poked the honey onto Roman’s nose and chuckled at his dramatic gasp.

‘Yuck, yuck, yuck,’ Roman muttered and wiped his nose on his sleeve with a sniffle.

The lids of the sippy cups and bottle were replaced quickly and Patton got Roman to shake them up while he passed Logan his mug.

As Logan had shifted to take his drink, Virgil’s diaper crinkled from beneath his onesie. The regressor sat more upright and made grabby hands at Patton, ‘Baba. Baba.’

‘Yes, baby, I’m just getting your bottle.’

His shirt was tugged from behind him and Patton stepped back to stop it from pulling so tightly against his neck, ignoring Logan’s quiet tut. The logical side had been trying to get Roman to stop tugging and poking the caregivers when he wanted attention, but Patton didn’t see that much harm in it. Virgil was allowed to whine and point at things, so why shouldn’t Roman be allowed to nudge them? It was one of the only things they could not agree on when it came to rules for their littles.

‘It’s fine,’ Patton insisted to Logan, then looked back to Roman, ‘What’s up, kiddo?’

Roman, already sipping at his milk, forewent any words and held Virgil’s bottle out to Patton.

After sparing a moment to stroke Roman’s cheek in thanks, Patton turned back to the couch, ready to sit down and take his baby into his arms and feed him as he had done so many times before.

Bottle-feeding had become a quintessential caregiving task for Patton since he had first done it all those weeks ago. It was initially done to calm Virgil down after a nightmare, but Patton had soon craved the feeling of immense tranquillity and love that had overwhelmed him as he held his baby and nursed his bottle. And so it became routine. It was enjoyable and comforting. It was important to him.

But seeing the way Logan’s arms tightened a little around the boy in his lap made Patton reconsider his eagerness to split them apart. Then, quite generously in his opinion, Patton offered, ‘Do you want to do it, Lo?’

The way Logan’s face brightened with a muted excitement chased away most of Patton’s disappointment.

‘If you do not mind,’ Logan whispered, clearly unwilling to betray how eager he was. He was sitting much more upright, at attention.

Patton smiled, passing the bottle into Logan’s hand and kneeling down to be closer to Virgil.

‘Hello, tiny stormcloud.’ Patton stroked his knuckle over Virgil’s cheek. ‘Mama is gonna give you your bottle this time, okay?’

Virgil closed his eyes and leaned into the caress of Patton’s finger. It took an awful lot of willpower, but Patton managed to pull his hand back and stand up again, leaving his baby in Logan’s responsibility. No, not his baby, Patton thought as he watched Logan take Virgil’s pacifier out and quickly replace it with the bottle with ease (he had probably been paying close attention whenever he had watched Patton doing the exact same). Not his baby.  _ Their  _ baby.

‘Dad?’

With a twinge of guilt, Patton realised he had been stood watching the bottle-feeding for a while and had forgotten that he had another little one to look after. Turning around, he saw that same timidity that he had seen a few minutes previously sully Roman’s expression.

‘I’m bored,’ Roman mumbled, his lips pressed up against the mouthpiece of his sippy cup.

Of course, sitting quietly while a baby was bottle-fed was probably not the most engaging activity for an older kiddo. Taking note of the jealousy that was clearly affecting Roman, Patton remembered reading that parents should spend some time bonding with an older sibling when the baby was busy. The advice was obviously intended for actual children, though that didn’t mean it couldn’t be effective with his little prince.

‘How about we bake some Winnie the Pooh cookies?’ Patton suggested with a big smile.

His enthusiasm was not reflected by Roman, who simply shrugged and said, ‘Okay.’

So Patton added, ‘Only big kids are allowed to bake, so this will be our special thing! Just you and me, little prince.’

‘Okay!’ Roman’s smile could have lit up the whole house. He bounced on his toes. ‘We can - we, um, we can make honeypot shaped ones and we can make the - the - the - the “haycorn” shaped ones too!’

‘That sounds wonderful, sweetie,’ Patton said, sure that it was past the point of trying to get Roman to be quiet around Virgil. The younger side didn’t seem bothered by it, at least. When Patton looked back at the pair on the couch, he was quite happily suckling at the bottle that Logan held for him. ‘Will you two be all right, Lo?’

The named side was focussing entirely on the baby in his arms and did not even look up to Patton when he muttered, ‘Uh, yes, sounds wonderful, Roman.’

Patton giggled as he was tugged out of the room by a very eager little prince. He had nothing to be anxious about. Logan was more than capable of looking after their baby.

With a rekindled sense of purpose, Patton stepped (or rather was dragged) into the kitchen, ready to devote his entire supply of fatherly attention to Roman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I got carried away with my writing and had to split this chapter into two parts! I feel bad about it so, as a treat, I’m going to give you the summary for the next chapter:
> 
> Roman is anxious, Virgil has some compelling things to say, Logan deduces Virgil’s true regression age, Patton gets emotional, and we say good-bye.
> 
> Hop on over to my tumblr [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/) where we make headcanons together, deduce whether my friends are secretly sending anon asks, and I complain about word counts ♡


	8. Sink and Float

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman is anxious, Virgil has some compelling things to say, Logan deduces Virgil’s true regression age, Patton gets emotional, and we say good-bye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: Light angst, but cuteness galore to make up for it.

‘All right, little prince. What should I write here?’

‘His coolness rating,’ Roman replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. His tongue stuck out slightly as he concentrated on his drawing; a picture of Kanga on the top half of a small piece of paper. Underneath the character were five rectangles, all coloured to varying levels of completion.

‘Of course,’ Patton said, nodding solemnly as he wrote “coolness” underneath the fifth rectangle on his own piece of paper. ‘And I’m guessing Tigger’s coolness rating is -’

‘Ten.’

‘Ten. Obviously,’ Patton giggled. He picked up the red crayon from the dining room table and coloured the final rectangle to completion. Just like the four rectangles above it. They signified Tigger’s bounciness, funniness, orangeness, and Roman’s seal of approval ratings, all maxed out. ‘I’m starting to think this card might be rigged.’

‘Nu-uh!’ Roman cried, finally looking up from his drawing with a pout. ‘Not rigged if it’s true. Tigger is the funniest, bounciest, orangest, coolest character, and he’s my favourite. He just  _ has  _ to win all of the rounds!’

Despite the frankly questionable logic, Patton was simply glad that Roman was back to his cheeky self.

While they baked, Roman had been strangely well-behaved. The way he had obediently mixed the batter, rolled the dough, and shaped the cookies without so much as a whinge was highly unusual. Patton was glad he didn’t have to tell the boy off for anything, of course, but there was nothing relieving in seeing Roman stand patiently at the side of the room while Patton washed up. There was no singing, no dancing, no bouncing, not so much as a peep from the little prince. It just wasn’t right.

Roman was boisterous, whether he was little or not; he was excitable and hyperactive and loud. Usually, he would have baulked at the mere suggestion of standing in silence awaiting instructions. Though that was precisely what he had done in the kitchen by his own volition, staring at his feet in quite a pensive manner.

By the time he had set the gingerbread haycorns and hunnypots on the counter to cool down, Patton had made the decision to extend their father-son bonding time. He knew Roman’s strange mood would persist if Patton didn’t get to the bottom of it.

‘Where are you going, sweetheart?’ Patton had asked when Roman had started walking towards the living room once Patton had finished the dishes.

‘Back with Vee and Mom,’ Roman had replied. ‘We can’t decorate them yet.’

‘It’s still father-son bonding time though! Why don’t we find something fun to do while we wait?’

He wasn’t quite as bouncy as Patton had hoped he would be, but Roman at least smiled at the suggestion.

Now, after almost an hour of crafting Pooh Cards (all design credit owing to Roman, of course), the creative side had finally been coaxed out of his sombre, contemplative mood. Patton himself had even perked up from the reassurance that he still knew what was best for his little prince.

‘What if another player that isn’t you gets Tigger’s card?’ Patton asked, neatening the edges of the coloured rectangle. He was careful not to budge Roman with his elbow as did so. ‘Won’t you be sad to lose?’

The scritch of Roman’s crayon paused for a moment, then continued. ‘It will be a worthy loss.’

What a funny little boy, Patton thought with a chuckle. Having finished with Tigger’s statistics, he put the crayon back in Roman’s Lion King pencil case. ‘Okay, last one!’ He slid the card across the table to Roman’s spot. ‘Do you need your dad’s help to draw Tigger?’ Patton asked. (Not so much because he was expecting a positive response, but because he knew the question reinforced both of their respective headspaces.)

‘I got it!’ An orange crayon was snatched from the table.

Patton sat back and watched as Roman drew his favourite character with a bright smile. It was impossible not to mirror it. ‘Once you’ve finished drawing Tigger we can decorate our cookies!’

‘Dad,’ Roman whined without looking up from his drawing, ‘they’re not cookies. They’re haycorns and hunnypots.’

‘Right, haycorns and hunnypots,’ Patton quickly corrected himself. ‘I keep making that mistake, don’t I?’

There was no response from Roman, who was clearly concentrating on getting Tigger’s tail just so.

‘Cutie pie,’ Patton couldn’t help but coo. When he pinched Roman’s cheek the younger side laughed so sincerely that Paton was hit by a wave of equal parts joy and guilt.

Joy because Roman was happy and so utterly adorable. Guilt because Patton clearly didn’t spend enough time with his little prince if this was such a rare sound to him.

‘I’ll get the icing ready,’ Patton whispered, leaving the room quickly.

By the time he had moved the cookies and the icing bowls into the dining room, Roman’s drawing was complete. Patton praised him heartily for his work (to which Roman blushed and giggled) as he arranged their workspace with the three different bowls of glace icing - yellow, pink, and mint green - and the cookies, plus a tube of white writing icing for the hunnypot labels.

Excited to be in charge of yet another creative project, Roman instantly took on a leading role. ‘Dad, you’ve gotta do the writing on the hunnypots and fen - and f-th-then I’m gonna do all the pretty colours!’

‘Right-o, kiddo!’ Patton saluted him, then got right to work. ‘You always have such wonderful ideas, don’t you, little prince?’ The lid to the writing icing tube put up a slight resistance as Patton unscrewed it.

‘Mhm… I’m clever,’ Roman mumbled slowly, concentrating as he spread some green icing onto one of the haycorn cookies.

‘Just like your mom. I’m sure him and Vee agree too.’

‘Vee thinks I’m clever?’ Roman asked, his voice a pitch higher from excitement.

‘Of course, sweetie. He looks up to you a lot.’ The tail of the “Y” that Patton piped accidentally curled off of the hunnypot in his hand. Patton placed the cookie back on the cooling rack and licked the sugary blob off from his fingertip. ‘You two are such lovely brothers - you’re practically inseparable.’

There was a gentle snap. Both Patton and Roman looked down to see that the haycorn in Roman’s hands had snapped in half.

‘Oh…’ Roman breathed as he looked down at the broken cookie. The pout on his face was so intense that Patton was almost worried he would start crying.

‘No, it’s okay. Here,’ Patton gently took the gingerbread pieces from his fingers. ‘Your dad can work his magic and glue it back together with icing. You just keep making them look pretty, sweetheart.’

They resumed decorating in silence, with something indescribable hanging heavily in the air between them. Patton kept quiet, allowing Roman space to speak if he wanted to say anything. Then, after a couple of minutes:

‘Dad?’

It sounded shy, so instead of looking at Roman and possibly making him more nervous, Patton’s eyes remained on the haycorn halves that he held together. White icing oozed from the crack as he waited for it to set. ‘Yes, my bright ray of sunshine?’

The nickname pulled a little giggle from Roman, brightening the atmosphere infinitely. He sounded a bit more confident when he asked, ‘Is, um… is Vee wearing a diaper?’

Patton’s gaze snapped onto Roman’s face in faint shock.

‘There was a weird sound when Mom moved him earlier,’ Roman explained. ‘And you said he feels littler ‘cause you tried something new.’

There was no variation of upset or amusement on Roman’s face, so Patton was not concerned when he confirmed, ‘Yes, he is wearing a diaper, you’re right.’ Though he still felt it important to add, ‘Does that make you feel okay?’

Roman quickly nodded, clearly desperate to show that he was not in opposition. ‘No, it’s fine. W-wait, I mean yeah! Yeah, it’s okay.’ His eyes fell down to the cookie in his hands as he continued decorating. ‘It makes sense. Babies need diapers, right?’

‘Right.’

The way Roman gazed at his cookie reminded Patton of how he had appeared in the kitchen; contemplative. It was clear that Roman had more to say, going by the way his toes tapped at the foot of Patton’s chair rapidly. Patton waited.

‘Okay, wait, so,’ Roman eventually said, sounding as if he were a student troubling himself over a difficult math problem and Patton was the teacher who could shed some light on its solution. ‘Virgil really can’t go to the toilet?’

Patton readjusted himself to lean his elbows on the table, settling in to patiently help Roman through his confusion. ‘Not when he’s regressed, no.’ The cookie halves wobbled a little in his hold.

‘And can he really not speak properly?’

This time Patton had to take a moment to think over his answer. He hadn’t actually considered questioning whether Virgil’s hindered speech was genuine. Now that he thought about it, Virgil did appear to try hard when he spoke while regressed. Although the babbles were quiet and seemed to meld into each other, they were notably forced. As if he was putting a lot of effort into getting them out. And yet they were only ever half-coherent at the best of times.

‘No,’ Patton said, smiling to himself at the realisation. ‘I don’t think he can.’ The reminder that Virgil’s regression was all-encompassing sent a rush of excitement racing through Patton’s veins. He truly was responsible for an incredibly vulnerable baby. While that thought might have been intimidating to some, Patton was filled with pure comfort at the mere thought. It was like he was finally fulfilling his purpose. It was like coming home.

‘So… Vee is really, actually a baby.’ Roman’s eyes were wide and his voice laced with astonishment.

‘Yes,’ Patton confirmed with a giggle. It sounded like this was a new revelation to Roman. ‘Your baby brother is really, actually a baby.’

Roman’s brow pulled into a light frown as his spoon swiped over his cookie one last time before dropping into the icing bowl with a clatter.

It was clear Roman wanted to ponder over the answer, for whatever reason, so Patton turned his attention to testing the cookie in his hands. At the slightest pressure, the two halves broke free from each other, and he tutted. Replenishing the icing more liberally this time, he held the jagged edges together firmly again.

‘I like that,’ Roman muttered.

‘What’s that, sweetie?’

‘I like having a baby brother.’ Patton saw Roman nodding as if assuring himself of his decision. ‘I don’t want Vee to be like me, I like that we’re different.’

The last part seemingly came from nowhere, and the whole discussion seemed oddly disjointed, though Patton didn’t show his confusion. Instead, he opted for his standard smile of loving support, which would always be appropriate in any situation as far as Patton was concerned.

‘Well, I’m glad you like it!’ His tone bounced cheerfully. ‘And I know that Vee really loves having a big brother.’

‘Hm,’ Roman hummed and picked up a hunnypot cookie to decorate. Something in the slow movements of his fingers as he iced the treat felt off.

Patton nudged him gently, jostling his elbow. A sympathetic smile wormed its way onto his lips when he saw distant eyes snap onto him. Roman’s throat rolled with a gulp.

‘What’s the matter, little prince?‘ Patton murmured sweetly. It never took Roman long to blurt any troubling thoughts that hurtled through his mind when Patton asked about them with such softness.

Right on cue, Roman sighed explosively. Then he began: ‘Now that I’m part of the family -’

(Patton’s heart twisted.  _ Now  _ that Roman was part of the family. As if he hadn’t been before.)

‘- I’m kind of…’ Roman paused, nibbling his lip. His eyes fell to the table as he whispered, ‘I’m scared.’

Patton instantly dropped his cookie to the table. He didn’t care that it split apart once more, leaving a thin line of white, sugary goop on the wooden surface - his only priority at that moment was Roman. His little prince always placed so much importance on being fiercely brave and strong. Patton knew this must have been an exceptional circumstance for him to actually admit to feeling afraid.

‘What are you scared of, honey?’ he asked, his tone as steady and firm as the arm he placed around Roman’s shoulders. It was of utmost importance that Roman saw him as a supportive, strong father figure during that moment of rare vulnerability. It had to be known that Patton would protect him from anything that was causing him distress.

‘I’m scared it’ll end.’ Thankfully, Roman clearly found Patton supportive enough to lean against him as he spoke. ‘You know, us being a family.’

It was difficult to contain the urge to shrug off the mere idea. Though Patton knew better than to dismiss his loved ones’ worries, no matter how seemingly unlikely. ‘Why do you think it will end?’ he asked instead.

A sharp shrug jostled both of their bodies. ‘I don’t know… What if Vee stops regressing?’

‘I don’t think that will happen,’ Patton said gently as he swayed them to and fro. The weight against his side got heavier as Roman leaned into his one-armed embrace. ‘Your mom thinks the regression is written right into Virgil’s brain since he’s done it for so many years. It’s a part of him.’

‘Okay…’ Roman sounded uncertain still, reaching forward to fidget with the hem of Patton’s cardigan. ‘What if me and him start arguing all the time again?’

Taking the long fingers in his own, Patton whispered, ‘You won’t,’ with absolute confidence. ‘I don’t think you could go back to how you used to be after everything you boys have shared with each other.’

When Patton pressed a soft kiss to Roman’s cheek, he honestly expected to feel the tension leave Roman’s body.

Instead, the grip around Patton’s fingers tightened painfully. ‘What if he says he doesn’t wanna be brothers anymore?’ Roman’s words were frantic, panicked. ‘I don’t wanna lose him, he’s the best brother I…’

Silence reigned.

Patton’s gaze sunk to the tabletop where the two halves of the haycorn cookie lay torn apart, joined only by a thin trail of icing.

‘I just don’t want us to be split up,’ Roman whispered brokenly.

Memories flooded Patton’s mind. Of two boisterous children, identical twins, perpetually by each other’s sides despite their constant arguing. Of fearsome fights; scratching and biting and screaming. And of a thought, just a thought, that had passed through Patton’s mind one sunny day like an innocent floating cloud. The thought that one of the twins had potential and that the other was… wrong.

Memories of the following day and only seeing one child come out from their room. Of little snippets of conversation between Janus and Logan. Of realising that the other twin had not ceased to exist, but had been moved to the lower parts of the mind. (No one understood how. It was the only time a side had been moved between the conscious and the subconscious.) (That would change over a decade later when Virgil timidly knocked on their door.)

Memories of the “good” twin - Roman - seeming unaffected by the loss of his brother. Happier, even, that his ideas had no contenders. That there was no longer a double of him suggesting all manner of disturbing things that Patton simply could not stand to hear.

Warm fingers tightened further around his.

As Patton’s awareness was reeled against that cold, crashing wave of regret, his mind spluttered. Unaffected? Patton realised now the ridiculousness of the mere notion that Roman would have been unchanged by the split. By the fleeting thought from Patton - he himself still being a child at the time - that had acted as the catalyst for such an irrevocable shift in the twins’ lives. In everyone’s lives.

‘Dad?’ Roman’s gentle voice broke the surface of Patton’s turbulent reverie.

With a steadying breath, Patton forced himself back to the present and clasped both hands around Roman’s. He prayed that the tightness of his grip would dispel the trembling of his fingers.

‘You and Virgil love each other very much,’ he said, ‘and you’ve both become a lot better at showing it; when you’re little and when you’re big. Even if you did argue, you could never stop being brothers. Not now. I promise, nothing will -’ Patton’s voice was suddenly strangled by an involuntary gulp. He felt his cheeks burn as he swallowed past the knot of nerves in his throat. ‘Nothing will tear you apart,’ he finished quietly.

‘What if you and Logan break up?’

It was easy to forget how different Roman’s voice was when he was little. Him being such a master at adapting his voice for different roles, the shift in tone was subtle, though effective. The slightest bit higher in pitch, though not unnaturally so. Much bouncier in intonation, but not inappropriately so. Changed, but not overexaggerated. (Perhaps Roman was accustomed to minimising the impact of changes, Patton realised.)

Though now it was clear. This question was deeper, louder, bigger than the previous ones. It was a question from adult Roman.

Patton sighed and met Roman’s eyes equally. At that moment he was no longer a father speaking to his son, but rather a friend reassuring a friend.

‘If, for whatever reason, Logan and I stop dating…’ Patton paused. That was the first time he had verbally acknowledged that they were an item. It truly felt amazing to admit to someone besides Logan himself. Though it was a melancholy experience, to be announcing their relationship while simultaneously theorising its demise. ‘If that ever happens then we’ll still be very good friends. And we will all still be a family, I promise.’

The reluctance faded from Roman’s expression and he wriggled his hand free from Patton’s hold. A finger raised between their faces. ‘Pinky promise?’ Roman asked in childlike hopefulness.

Patton curled his little finger around Roman’s. ‘Pinky promise,’ he said earnestly.

Taking advantage of the fact that Roman’s hand was apprehended - and desperate to distract from the loaded atmosphere - Patton swiped some icing onto Roman’s face.

‘Hey!’

‘What’s wrong?’ Patton asked in mock-confusion.

Roman glared at him past a smile. ‘There’s icing on my cheek!’

‘Oh, let me get that for you!’ Patton pressed a long, wet kiss to Roman’s cheek, the icing spreading between his lips.

‘Da-ha-d,’ Roman giggled, trying to squirm away.

With a loud smack of his lips, Patton pulled away laughing. As he licked his lips clean, he took a moment to appreciate the pure joy on Roman’s face. ‘I love you, little prince. And I love Virgil and I love Logan. And I know for a fact that you all love each other too. That will never, ever end. No matter what.’

There was a loud screech of chair legs against the floorboards then Roman was on his feet, hunching over to hold Patton in a deadly-tight hug. Patton returned it with a strained wheeze.

‘I don’t want it to end,’ Roman mumbled into his shoulder. ‘I don’t want anything to change.’

That was a loaded statement if Patton had ever heard one. The sentiment behind it was clear and admirable, of course. Like Roman, Patton too loved how their family was faring and wouldn’t change it for the world. Though he was hit by the reality of just how much had changed in the past few weeks, the past few days, even the past few hours!

Regardless, he knew what Roman meant, and he wasn’t one to magnify the ambiguity of language choices. That was Logan’s job.

So - despite his uncertainty in the generalisation of the statement - Patton held Roman closer and said, ‘Nothing will change, sweetheart.’

oOo

As much as he had enjoyed his and Roman’s Father-Son bonding time (which they agreed would become a weekly ritual from then on), Patton was more than eager to return to the living room and be the happy pappy again. It was hard to shake the melancholy from the earlier conversation, after all.

Once the hunnypots and haycorns were decorated and left to set in the kitchen, the two traipsed back down the hallway. Patton stopped just short of opening the living room door when he heard a muffled, unintelligible conversation coming from the other side of it.

He looked behind him to Roman, who mirrored his confusion. The distant voices sounded as if they were holding a full-fledged discussion. Could Virgil have been grown-up again?

Patton pushed the door open with a deep disappointment that he didn’t quite want to acknowledge. Though on poking his head into the room, it didn’t take long to see that Virgil was still regressed and in Logan’s lap. He sighed in relief.

‘Mamanaba,’ Virgil muttered, rattling Meeko with fervour. The inflection of his voice was similar to that of normal speech, even if the actual content was gibberish and his tone was still decidedly babyish.

Logan’s hands readjusted on Virgil to hold him steady as the boy kept bouncing in his lap. ‘My goodness, I never considered such a thing! Though I don’t believe that is quantifiable.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Roman laughed from behind Patton, then stepped around him in the direction of the couch.

There was nothing but pure paternal instinct that made Patton hurriedly reach out and pull Roman backwards against his chest and into his arms. He just could not bear to see the others being so sweet while his own arms were empty of one of his babies. Thankfully, Roman just settled against him and didn’t comment on it.

‘This is an academic debate, little prince,’ Logan explained very seriously, offering one of his false-stern looks. His lips twitched. ‘No interruptions, please.’

‘W-waba, mamama,’ Virgil babbled, his voice now squeaky with excitement.

Logan gasped loudly and looked at Virgil in amazement, to which the regressor giggled. ‘What a fascinating hypothesis! But have you considered the subjectivity of such a theory?’

There was a moment of quiet while Virgil looked over at the doorway to Patton and Roman. It seemed he had only just noticed their appearance. Meeko was raised to hide Virgil’s face as he collapsed against Logan’s chest. ‘Baba,’ Virgil whined, muffled by the toy at his chin.

A loud chuckle rang out. ‘Well, you’ve certainly given me a lot to think about,’ Logan said, cupping the back of Virgil’s head protectively.

‘Mom, can you speak baby?’ Roman asked, sounding thoroughly impressed. As he spoke, he launched himself away from Patton’s chest and skipped over to stand in front of the couch.

‘It certainly sounds like it,’ Patton murmured, watching Roman go. The sudden emptiness in his arms couldn’t hold a candle to the emptiness in his chest. Why was he so sensitive all of a sudden? Why did his chest physically ache when he wasn’t holding his boys?

Then his thoughts came to a crashing stop. No. This wasn’t about him and what he wanted. Roman obviously didn’t want a hug so he was perfectly within his right to wriggle out of it. Patton had been keeping him from his brother, after all. The memories of his and Roman’s previous conversation rose in tides, threatening to spill over. Patton had been keeping Roman from his brother  _ again. _

‘What did you two get up to, little prince?’ Logan asked. ‘Did you have fun with your dad?’

As Roman launched into an impassioned regaling of the creation of Pooh Cards and his expert cookie decorating skills, Patton floated over to the couch - specifically towards the baby in Logan’s lap. His knuckle ghosted over Virgil’s smooth cheek and elicited a small coo from him. The contact and the sweet sound filled Patton with a sudden motivation that he hadn’t realised he had been lacking.

Then Virgil pulled himself to sit up from Logan’s chest and shook his rattle right by Patton’s ear with a bright smile that threatened to dislodge his pacifier. ‘Babababa.’

‘What a fun sound!’ Patton gushed, only faintly acknowledging that Roman’s monologue had just drawn to a close. ‘I see someone’s woken up a bit since we left.’

‘He is rather enraptured by the rattling sound,’ Logan said, shuffling Virgil in his lap so that he could more directly face the others. (It was true, the way Virgil stared at his toy looked as if we were both confused and amazed by the sounds coming from it; almost spellbound.) ‘I think it’s safe to say that it is a “good stim”.’ He directed his gaze to Roman and said, ‘Virgil appreciates his present from you Roman, even if he is not able to tell you as much at the moment. Thank you for making your little brother happy.’

Roman flopped down to sit on the couch a couple of feet away from Logan with pink cheeks. ‘S’okay,’ he muttered with a nonchalant shrug that was betrayed by his wide smile.

Quite unexpectedly, Virgil whined loudly and dropped Meeko to the couch. Then he wriggled and reached his arms out towards his brother so insistently that he slid right off of Logan’s lap.

‘Vee!’ Logan yelped.

Patton acted lightning fast, dropping to his knees and catching Vee in one fell swoop. A fraction of a second later and Virgil would have hit the ground.

‘Woah, there we go.’ Patton hoisted Virgil onto his hip and stood upright again, keeping a firm arm under Virgil’s diaper to support him. ‘Are you okay, angel?’ he asked breathlessly, residual adrenaline surging through his veins.

The shock didn’t fade from Virgil’s expression for several seconds. Then, at last, his eyes swam with thick tears and he broke into a constant stream of whimpers.

‘Aww, my little baby,’ Patton cooed. He started bouncing him lightly as parents often did with wailing infants. ‘You’re all right, sweetie. Shh-shh-shh.’ Virgil’s whimpers quickly quieted at the bouncing so Patton kept it up, warm adoration swelling in his chest at just how alike a real baby Virgil was.

With a wet sniffle, Virgil buried his face against Patton’s shoulder.

‘That’s it,’ Patton murmured. ‘Papa has you, you’re safe.’ He felt a pinch at his side and looked down to see that Virgil was gripping his cardigan and tugging on the material harshly. Without looking away from his baby, Patton held his free hand out to the couch. ‘Can someone please pass me Meeko?’

A few seconds passed without any softness being pressed into his hands. Patton looked over to find Logan and Roman sat staring at him in stunned silence.

It felt as though he had unknowingly done something horribly wrong. Heat flooded his cheeks. ‘What’s wrong, what did I do?’ Was he being a bad Dad? Would they take his baby away? His grip on Virgil tightened.

‘N-nothing,’ Logan stammered.

A loud snort sounded from Roman. ‘Wow, Dad’s pretty strong, isn’t he, Mom?’

‘Oh,’ Patton breathed with a nervous chuckle, trying to hide how utterly relieved he was. The look of betrayal Logan was directing towards Roman inspired enough amusement for it to be passable. ‘You carried him earlier too, Lo.’

‘I know that,’ Logan defended, his cheeks dusting pink as he looked back at Patton. ‘Just… not with one arm.’

Patton’s eyes trailed down to realise that he was indeed bouncing Virgil easily with only one arm. 

Logan cleared his throat then muttered, ‘It is rather impressive.’

‘Well, I’m a dad,’ Patton giggled lightly. He would never have imagined Logan would be flustered by such a thing. ‘Dads need to be strong for Dad Stuff!’

‘Like catching Moms when they swoon.’

At Roman’s cheeky remark, Logan’s mouth dropped open. The creative side quickly descended into giggles.

Patton witnessed the shock on Logan’s face be wiped away by an evil grin. ‘Oh, I’ll give you something to laugh about.’ Then Roman was being tugged towards Logan’s chest, Logan’s fingers wriggling in his underarms.

‘W-wait! Wait!’ Roman’s legs kicked against the couch as he was dragged into Logan’s lap. ‘Mom, ple-he-he-ase!’ he pleaded through already hysterical laughter.

Patton giggled and shook his head. It wasn’t often Logan tickled their little prince, but when he did he was merciless. Roman’s begging would not help him.

Amongst the raucous laughter and tumbling on the couch, Patton managed to swipe Meeko from the cushion before Roman’s ankles thrust into it with a squeal.

‘Here you are, honey bunny,’ Patton said, worming the toy between his cardigan and Virgil’s fingers.

The weight on his shoulder lifted as Virgil looked up with a curious hum. On seeing that he had been reunited with his raccoon, his eyes sparkled with joy rather than tears. And, as expected, he rattled the toy for what must have been the hundredth time.

‘Why did you jump off of Mama’s lap, Vee?’ Patton asked, fully aware that Virgil might not have been old enough to even understand the question. It was worth a try at least.

The question seemed to break Virgil from the trance the rattle had him under and he started whining and wriggling violently.

‘Baby, baby, it’s okay,’ Patton tried to soothe him. It was only met with louder whines and harder kicks. ‘All right, down we go,’ he sang, doing his best to make the words bounce with joy. It was difficult considering the immense sinking sensation in his stomach as he carefully lowered Virgil to the floor.

‘Is everything all right?’

Patton looked up at Logan’s breathless question, pleasantly surprised to see Roman still in Logan’s lap, finally free of the tickle attack.

‘I just asked him why he jumped off your lap.’

At the reminder, Virgil thrust his arms out towards Roman again and pleaded, ‘Wo… Wo-Wo!’

‘I didn’t do anything!’ Roman’s shoulders raised defensively as he looked to Patton. ‘It wasn’t my fault he fell!’

‘We know that, little prince. It’s all right,’ Logan assured him, embracing him to his chest.

With a gentle smile, Patton realised that Virgil was not blaming Roman for the fall whatsoever. ‘Sweetheart, I think Vee just wants to play with you.’

Virgil’s arms stretched even further into the empty space between himself and the couch. ‘Pway!’

‘Oh, um,’ Roman hesitated, looking at the ground and running his fingers over Logan’s arms, which were fastened around his waist.

‘I would like to stretch my legs anyway,’ Logan said, carefully sliding Roman off of his lap.

There was a short moment of thick quiet. It was over in an instant as Logan quickly rose to his feet, announcing that he would fetch some more toys for them before promptly leaving the room.

Before long, Logan had returned with supplies and the caregivers had set up a baby-safe play area for the boys. A large fluffy blanket lay across half of the living room floor and more than two dozen soft toys sat around the edges of the blanket, cordoning off the area. Around the room, cushions and pillows padded the harsh corners of the coffee table, TV unit, and radiator to avoid any painful bumps.

Roman was as bubbly as ever, overspilling with exuberant playfulness as he finally had his little brother’s full attention.

‘And what doth the King Meeko have to say to this usurper?’ Roman cried regally, bouncing his stuffed dog Bumpkin in his hands to indicate that he was speaking.

Virgil giggled and bounced in place where he sat against the foot of the armchair, carefully propped up by two pillows. His laughter mixed with the rattles coming from Meeko as he shook him.

‘Vee, what do you want Bumpkin to say?’ Logan mumbled from where he sat beside Patton on the couch.

A happy hum rolled from Patton’s chest. It was rare that they got a chance to sit together while both boys were little, but Virgil had gotten surprisingly fussy when Logan tried to sit with him on the blanket. It seemed the excitement of being with Roman had chased away his languid energy and he wanted to sit alone with his brother while they played.

Despite Patton’s increasing panic at seeing his little baby sitting all on his own, not in his arms, Patton felt comforted by Logan’s closeness. It meant he could run his fingers idly over Logan’s thigh as Logan’s arm draped heavily across his shoulders. He took the rare moment of casual intimacy in stride. Usually, they had to sneak around while the boys were asleep to cuddle and kiss. Though since he had spoken so openly about their relationship with Roman in the dining room, and seeing as Virgil was either unbothered by or unaware of their displays of affection, they allowed themselves this intimate moment.

‘A-ababa,’ Virgil babbled, pointing to the soft toy in Roman’s hands.

Roman sucked in a pained breath through his teeth. ‘Oof. That’s brutal, Vee.’ It earned him a bright symphony of babyish giggles.

Over the next few minutes, Patton brought his cellphone out to take pictures of the littles. Then when Logan pointed out that he had taken more than twenty almost identical photographs, Patton rolled his eyes with a playful nudge to his partner. He would have easily taken a thousand pictures if it meant he could remember this day by the adorable scene in front of him, rather than the blunt, heavy regret hammering away within him. 

‘How old is Vee right now?’ Patton wondered aloud, partly because he was watching Virgil through his phone screen. Partly because he just needed Logan’s voice to drown out Roman’s sorrowful words from earlier that kept replaying in his head.

‘Going by his babbling and playfulness,’ Logan replied, ‘I would place him around eight or nine months.’

All of the breath wrung from Patton’s lungs as he snapped his gaze onto Logan. ‘Months?’

Not seeming to notice Patton’s shock, Logan continued watching the boys with a gentle smile and nodded.

‘That’s way younger than he usually is…’ Patton placed his phone down on the couch, feeling shaky all of a sudden.

‘I am not so certain.’ A thumb started circling softly over Patton’s knuckles as Logan explained in a low murmur, ‘At first he told us he regressed from two to five years old. Though I have been observing his behaviour over the past few weeks, and I believe he has been greatly mistaken in this estimation.’

The soft material of Logan’s slacks bunched between Patton’s fingers. ‘What, do you think he’s not that old?’ The new information bombarded him with the horrible thought that he hadn’t been doing his job as a father if he hadn’t even noticed how old Virgil was when he regressed.

Gaze fixed on their boys, lips fixed in an oblivious smile, Logan went on: ‘Nothing I have seen of his regression has suggested he is ever older than two and a half years - though even then, being that old is rare for him.’ He tilted his head in thought, which would have been adorable had Patton’s vision not been pulsating with his frantic heartbeat. ‘I wonder whether he misunderstands developmental stages, or whether it is simply a case of him being unaware of his own behaviour patterns.’

‘What ages does he actually regress to?’ Patton whispered. He stared intently at Logan, desperate for the answer that he had apparently been too incompetent to see for himself.

With utmost confidence, Logan said, ‘Three to twenty-four months.’

Hot tears sprang to Patton’s eyes. ‘Three months…’ he echoed under his breath. Practically a newborn. With a gulp, Patton’s watery eyes settled on Virgil. A newborn who had been alone for so many years.

His wet eyes being glued on Virgil’s steadily blurrier form, Patton was startled when he felt Logan’s arm pushing insistently at his shoulders. Within seconds Patton was on his feet and being swiftly ushered into the hallway. His heart lurched when the blue and purple blob fell out of sight as he was guided past the corner of the doorway and the tears finally fell to his cheeks.

‘Your dad and I are right outside if you need us. Keep playing with your little brother,’ Logan’s voice said, then the door was pulled mostly shut and Patton was surrounded by long, warm arms. ‘What’s wrong, Patton?’

It all happened so quickly that he had no hope of burying his emotions, so Patton didn’t speak. He just clung to Logan and sniffled into his shoulder, thinking about what he had learned. About Virgil being so young and consequently about everything he had ever had to deal with on his own. The loneliness, the accidents, the bullies.

Patton bit his tongue through a wave of overwhelming anger. Over the course of the next minute, he simply took in deep, shaky breaths, glad that Logan did nothing but tap out one-second intervals on his back to aid his breathing.

Then, just as he thought he had overcome the worst of it, a babyish giggle rang from behind the living room door.

A sob wrenched its way from Patton’s throat.

‘My love, please tell me what’s wrong,’ Logan pleaded, his voice gentle though pained.

‘Sorry,’ Patton choked, pulling his face back from Logan’s shoulder to scrub his sleeve over his eyes. When he opened them and caught the utter sincerity in Logan’s concerned expression, the tears started anew. What exactly had Patton done to deserve such a wonderful man?

Patton couldn’t bear to hold back his lament any longer, keeping quiet so as not to upset the boys in the next room. ‘He’s just so - he’s literally just a baby. He’s innocent and - and vulnerable and -’ his voice wobbled and broke off with a shuddered breath. As he recollected all Virgil had told them of the hate he received on his blog, that same boiling rage oozed through Patton’s entire being. It stung and made him tremble. Like poison. ‘I can’t believe those horrible people would bully him for it!’

At the hissed tone, Logan’s face crumpled with a wince. Patton was ready to vehemently apologise for himself - about to claim he had no idea where that came from, it wasn’t him at all - until Logan said, ‘I know. I am angry too.’

There was no way Patton could have predicted how comforting those four words were. They doused the fire in his chest and left him dumbstruck. The raging indignance that had been snapping and flaring within him all afternoon suddenly disappeared and all that was left was a smouldering, pathetic sorrow.

Patton slumped back into Logan’s arms in defeat.

‘He was on his own for so many years, Lo. It’s bad enough he couldn’t look after himself,’ Patton whispered and shook his head, Logan’s shirt rustling faintly with the movement, ‘but on top of that some strangers attacked him just for - for -’

‘For trying to feel safe,’ Logan finished, twining his fingers gently in Patton’s thick hair.

Delighted, squeaky laughter echoed from the living room.

‘Not everyone is accepting.’ The deep voice vibrated in Logan’s chest. Patton held onto him tighter. ‘It is an unfortunate reality in both Thomas’ world and ours, and I understand it is upsetting. As much as we would like to, we simply cannot protect our boys from every possible threat.’

The icy pang of dread in Patton’s gut was twice as toxic as the scalding anger from before. What was Patton’s whole purpose if not to look after his family?

‘Virgil was not completely helpless to it, though,’ Logan continued. ‘He disabled anonymous asks without being prompted to do so. That shows he had the foresight to prevent it from happening again. He was protecting himself.’

Gentle shivers radiated over Patton’s scalp as Logan’s fingernails combed through his hair. ‘That’s meant to be our job,’ he argued weakly, ‘and he didn’t even tell us about it.’

‘Not at first,’ Logan conceded. ‘Still, that does not mean he did not trust us.’ Then Logan pulled back from the hug, leaving Patton cold. ‘You know how reluctant he is to share things that he perceives as embarrassing. Your conversation with him yesterday proves as much,’ he said, turning and walking down the hallway.

‘Where are you going?’ Patton shrieked, his hands curling into tight fists by his sides.

Logan looked back in shock. Then he carefully reached out to pick up the tissue box that sat on the cabinet by the staircase. The movement was slow, and Logan watched Patton all the while as if he were a startled animal that had to be monitored.

Shame flooded Patton. ‘Oh. Sorry, just… not done cuddling you yet.’

A soft smile replaced Logan’s frown and he brought a couple of tissues back to Patton, holding him again and dabbing at his itchy eyes. ‘I didn’t realise you would be competing with a box of tissues for my attention,’ Logan chuckled.

Patton knew it was a joke, of course he did. He loved jokes and he loved that Logan was finally comfortable enough in himself to make them without fearing people's opinions of him. But suddenly the heat in his chest was reignited.

‘Why didn’t you just summon them?’ Patton asked flatly.

The tissue that Logan stroked over his cheekbone faltered.

‘You always say how important it is that we don’t challenge the mindscape,’ Patton went on, glad that this topic had distracted Logan enough from his sudden clinginess. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you summon since you realised the whole - what’s it called?’

‘Equivalent exchange,’ Logan supplied, blushing. It was he who realised that the programming he had set up for their mindscape to follow real world laws of physics glitched whenever the sides took advantage of their powers; summoning an object would make another of similar mass and/or sentimental worth disappear, and breaking the laws of physics would train the mindscape to disparage Logan’s carefully crafted code. For the sake of stability in their environment, they had long since all agreed to sacrifice the convenience of summoning unless in emergencies. Logan most of all, which is why Patton was so shocked when he saw he had summoned a baby book earlier. ‘I understand it was hypocritical of me to break my own rule. I apologise, it won’t be happening again.’

Patton nodded. He didn’t want Logan to think he was upset with him, though he was satisfied that he had redirected the conversation effectively. ‘What was so urgent about a baby book anyway?’

‘I could not think of anything to calm Vee down,’ Logan explained, pocketing the crumpled tissue as Patton’s face was perfectly dry by then. ‘Regretfully, I acted quite impulsively in response to his crying.’

‘Oh no, was the poor thing upset?’ Patton asked, all harsh emotion replaced by softness and concern for his little one.

With a soft sigh, Logan leaned forward to press a kiss to Patton’s forehead. ‘You know how his separation anxiety is,’ he murmured against his skin, lingering there.

Patton frowned at Logan’s chest. ‘He still has separation anxiety?’

‘Of course,’ Logan said, putting some distance between them to look down at him.

‘But,’ Patton blinked rapidly, ‘earlier he was okay with me leaving and he - he hid from me, I thought -’

‘Patton, it doesn’t disappear from one positive experience,’ Logan explained, his arms still wrapped around Patton’s shoulders. ‘It may have been dimmed momentarily though it is still very much present. I believe it may be a permanent fixture of his headspace, simply due to the ages he regresses to and his anxious nature.’

‘Oh… okay.’ It was hard to know what else to say. Earlier Patton had thought he was proud of Virgil for overcoming his separation anxiety. But hearing that Virgil would perhaps never get over it sent a wave of warm comfort over Patton. He wanted to smile, but the fluffy feeling was sullied by something. Something distant that he couldn’t identify. Something unpleasant.

‘Do you know what time it is?’ Logan asked softly, spoken as if it were a love confession.

Patton instinctively reached into his pocket, only to come out empty-handed. ‘Sorry, I must have left my phone in -’

A featherlight touch at his lips made Patton fall silent: Logan’s fingertips. He could feel Logan’s pulse thrumming through them.

‘It’s later,’ Logan whispered, his eyes swimming with utter adoration. Then the soft fingertips were replaced by softer lips and Patton fell into a dream.

They floated together for a while, suspended in the short space between their hearts. After a few gentle pecks and a quick swipe of tongues, Logan pulled away.

‘That was sweet,’ Patton whispered airily, letting his eyes flutter open. Then he saw that Logan was frowning deeply at him.

‘Patton…’ Logan licked his lips and grimaced a little. He started chuckling, ‘Just how much lemon did you put in your tea?’

It wrenched Patton from his dreamy state.

Guilt. The unpleasant feeling that was sullying his emotions was guilt. Guilt because how could he think himself supportive of his family if in the face of their developments his response had been extreme jealousy? So extreme that he had had to literally suck on a lemon to pull himself out of it.

As if that weren’t awful enough, Patton had actually felt happy when he learned Virgil would continue to be distressed by his separation anxiety. He had failed his baby, just like he had failed his little prince by neglecting him and not recognising his insecurities. He had failed at being a dad; the one thing he thought he knew. Why was he even trying to be a caregiver when he kept accidentally hurting his family?

Roman called loudly from the living room, ‘Dad?’

A switch flipped in Patton’s brain. No, he wouldn’t give up. His boys needed their dad and that had to be him. No matter how many mistakes he made, how wrong he was, Patton would never let go of the only thing in the world he could do. He would never let go of his purpose. The one thing he lived for.

He was nothing if he couldn’t be Papa Patton.

He slipped right past Logan, not caring to check his reaction to Patton’s avoidance. With a huge smile, Patton bounced into the living room. ‘What’s up, my majestic little songbird?’

It was immediately clear why Roman had called.

Where Virgil had been sitting on the blanket before they left the room, giggling and rattling Meeko excitedly, both boys now sat. Roman’s arm was thrown over Virgil’s shoulders protectively, supporting the younger boy as he swayed and blinked slowly. His eyes were decidedly teary and he was tugging at his pacifier again.

‘Oh, my sweet little baby,’ Patton cooed, rushing over to them. The storm of guilt and jealousy cleared from his mind in an instant, leaving him a little light-headed. It was replaced by a muffled determination and affection that made everything seem softer around the edges.

Dropping to his knees, Patton pulled Virgil into a hug. There was a little whimper, and then his shoulder was immediately used as a hiding spot for Virgil’s face. ‘What happened, Roman?’ Patton asked, leaning back against the foot of the armchair. He rested his hand atop Virgil’s head and felt as though his heart had started beating for the first time in hours.

‘He just froze and went super quiet all of a sudden,’ Roman explained, letting go of his brother and collapsing back onto the blanket with a pout. ‘Then he didn’t wanna play anymore.’

‘It’s all right, Roman,’ Logan said, settling onto the floor beside Roman with a reassuring pat on his knee. ‘Virgil can play with you again another time.’ He began clearing the mess of various toys on the blanket, assembling them into an ordered line.

‘Are you upset, baby?’ Patton whispered, rocking Virgil slightly in his hold.

As was to be expected, there was no answer. Virgil only hid his face against Patton more fiercely.

‘Perhaps it was the separation anxiety.’

Patton nodded faintly at Logan’s suggestion, but internally he knew that wasn’t it. In the past, if Virgil was anxious about being separated from Patton he was much more vocal in his upset; sobbing and whining loudly. Plus he certainly hadn’t heard Virgil calling out for him before Roman beckoned him in, so Patton remained doubtful that that was the issue.

Another difference became obvious as Virgil hugged Patton tighter, forcing Patton to hunch down a little to accommodate it. Where Virgil would always scramble into Patton’s lap at being reunited with him, this time he had remained on the floor with his legs pulled tightly to his chest. Patton experimentally nudged Virgil’s knees to convince him to lower them but was met with a whine and Virgil’s whole body tensed up.

As Patton shushed his baby and swayed him back and forth, he just knew. There was no solid thought process he could attribute to his realisation. He thought it must have been his paternal instincts (which sent a rush of pride through him). Though regardless of how he knew it, Patton was quite certain that Virgil’s diaper was wet.

Then Logan spoke. ‘I think I would like to -’

‘I’m handling it,’ Patton assured firmly without looking up from his baby.

There was a short while of silence before Logan spoke again. ‘I was going to say I would like to play Pooh Cards with Roman.’

Shame flooded Patton’s mind. He chased it away by rubbing soothing circles on Virgil’s back.

‘Oh yeah!’ Roman cried, jumping up from the blanket so fast Patton was surprised he didn’t fall face-first to the floor with the momentum of it. As he bounced in place he grabbed and tugged on Logan’s hands. ‘Mom, Mom, Mom, quick, come see!’

There was a slight reluctance as Logan raised to his feet. ‘I said I would play with you Roman. Please do not pull me.’

Patton rolled his eyes. Roman was merely excited, and he knew his own strength. It wasn’t like it hurt Logan. There was no reason for him to be so strict with their little prince.

‘Are you sure you two will be all right?’ Logan asked, and his voice actually wobbled.

Logan - who always kept a steady, calm voice even in moments of distress - was presumably so worried about leaving Virgil with Patton that his voice had actually wavered.

Patton had to unclench his jaw to reply, ‘Of course we will, I’m his papa.’ It came out far more snappish than he had intended. He ran his fingers through Virgil’s hair, using the soft tendrils to distract himself from the sinking feeling in his chest. ‘I mean - he’s okay. I know what this is.’ Finally meeting Logan’s gaze, Patton offered a small smile that he knew didn’t meet his eyes.

‘Okay, love,’ Logan said softly, lovingly, and Patton knew he didn’t deserve it.

Then Logan led Roman out of the room to fetch the card game and the papa and his baby were left alone.

For a minute they simply sat, Patton still swaying them gently. Going by the fact that Virgil was no longer whimpering, it was clear the cuddle was soothing him. Patton too felt himself relaxing as their bodies moved as one and their breaths synchronised.

Over the course of those few quiet moments, Patton’s worries all seemed to float away. As if Virgil were a calm breeze, clearing the muggy clouds of guilt and bitterness from Patton’s mind and replacing them with crystal clear skies. Patton nuzzled his nose into Virgil’s hair and breathed deeply, feeling as though he hadn’t tasted oxygen until that very second. There was no other feeling in the world that could compare.

‘Come on, sweetheart. Let’s have a proper cuddle.’

There was no protest as Patton shuffled both of them up into the seat of the armchair. Virgil kept a tight hold on Meeko all the while, clearly afraid of dropping the toy. Admittedly, Patton had hoped he would have an opportunity to check Virgil’s diaper during the movement, but their positions simply didn’t allow for it. As soon as they were seated with Virgil on Patton’s lap, the regressor whined and hurriedly wriggled off of his legs to squeeze into the small space between Patton and the armrest.

‘It’s okay, honey,’ Patton murmured, letting Virgil curl up to his side instead. His knees were flush with his chest once more; hiding his lap on instinct, Patton realised.

‘Dad!’ Roman yelled, skipping back into the living room with a bright smile. ‘Mom really likes my game and says I’m really clever!’

Feeling Virgil jolt at the sudden noise, Patton carded his fingers through his hair softly. ‘That’s wonderful, sweetie,’ he said, trying not to feel disheartened by the interruption to his and Virgil’s time together. ‘I think you’re very clever too.’

Roman appeared to vibrate. ‘And - and n-now Mom is gonna play with me!’

‘Well, I hope you win, little prince,’ Patton chuckled, enamoured by Roman’s sweet enthusiasm. Then he put on a loud stage-whisper, ‘Try to get the Tigger card!’

A deep gasp sounded from the doorway. ‘I heard that, Patton!’ Logan entered the room with a look of mock-offence. He held a red sippy cup in one hand and the stack of Pooh Cards in his other. ‘I cannot believe you’re conspiring against me.’

Patton giggled, twirling a lock of Virgil’s hair around his pinky. ‘I’m a supportive dad, I have to be on Roman’s side!’

‘Hm, I suppose I can concede that,’ Logan grumbled, throwing a quick smile Patton’s way. He handed Roman his sippy cup, praising him when he said, ‘Thank you’.

There was a quiet whine from Virgil and Patton rocked him a little. He was probably upset by the others being so close given his shy headspace at that moment.

‘Come here, little one,’ Logan called, moving to sit by the coffee table at the other side of the room. ‘I need you to teach me how to play.’

Roman did not react.

‘Sweetie, that’s you,’ Patton whispered, reaching out to squeeze Roman’s hand.

A blush overtook Roman as he looked over at his mom, a smile forming on his lips. ‘Me?’

‘Of course,’ Logan nodded. By the casual shuffling of the Pooh Cards in his hands, it almost appeared as if Logan didn’t recognise the gravity of calling Roman ‘little one’, though Patton knew his partner better than that. He knew that Logan must have noticed Roman’s need for coddling in the face of Virgil’s younger headspace.

Patton grinned as he watched Roman rush over, sitting as close to Logan as was physically possible.

Then he felt Virgil trying to burrow into his shoulder further and looked down. The boy’s neck was noticeably strained by the action since he had to stretch awkwardly seeing as he wasn’t in Patton’s lap like he usually was.

‘Do you wanna sit in Papa’s lap?’

A slight nod came in reply.

‘All right, on three. Ready?’ Patton secured his arms around Virgil’s back and under his diaper. ‘One, two… three!’ As he easily lifted Virgil onto his lap, he took the opportunity to subtly pat and pinch the diaper through the fabric of his onesie. Definitely wet. With a swell of satisfaction at being correct in his assumption, Patton lowered Virgil to his lap and kissed his head.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed though. Once he was sitting on Patton’s thighs, Virgil immediately whimpered and hid his face behind Meeko.

‘It’s okay, baby,’ Patton reassured, rocking him again. ‘Papa was just checking if you’re still dry.’

The explanation was met with a tiny squeak. Virgil lowered Meeko, revealing his pink cheeks and rattling the toy once more. Though he did not shake it with the same vigour he had earlier; this time Meeko was gently waved to and fro quite lazily. ‘Bababa,’ Virgil mumbled.

Apparently, the diaper check had comforted Virgil and reinforced his younger headspace. Patton sighed and held his baby closer. That was just utterly adorable.

Logan cleared his throat quite pointedly from the other side of the room, and when Patton met his eyes he mouthed silently:  _ Is he dry? _

Patton responded with a slight shake of his head. Then, strangely, he felt his lips curl into a smile. Even stranger, Logan mirrored it, and Patton was quite sure they must have been thinking the same thing:

That Virgil had had an accident again, but this time there was no sobbing. There was no hyperventilating. There was no panic attack. In fact, the only indication he had wet himself at all was the fact that he had been pushed back into his sleepy baby state, and that wasn’t a bad thing whatsoever!

Looking down at him now, it was clear to Patton that the diapers were a hugely positive change for Virgil. Despite his lethargic energy, his dimples were showing at the sides of his pacifier which bobbed lazily in his mouth. As he rattled Meeko softly, his eyes sparkled with babyish curiosity. He was calm and happy. It soothed Patton immensely.

oOo

As their time together went on, Patton and Virgil cuddled and played so much that it was impossible for Patton to wipe the cheesy grin from his face. He had rocked Virgil gently, tickled his cheek softly to watch him blush and giggle, dutifully kissed Meeko whenever Virgil held the toy up to Patton with a smile, and now…

‘Are you ready?’ Patton asked in his most exaggerated baby-talk voice. ‘Is my baby ready for more bounces?’

Virgil giggled and kicked his feet a little by Patton’s hips, facing him in his lap. Meeko was hugged tightly to his chest as he nodded.

‘Ahhhh…’ Patton started, securing his grip on Virgil’s shoulders. ‘Bouncy, bouncy baby!’ He bounced his legs on each syllable, making Virgil bob up and down in his lap with little squeals of happiness. ‘What a cute little stormcloud!’

Sweet laughter continued to tumble from behind Virgil’s pacifier. ‘Baba, g-gen!’

‘Again?’ Patton repeated, chuckling. They had been doing this for several minutes by that point, and his legs ached from the constant lifting. But who was he to deny his baby when his eyes glittered with such joy? ‘Okay. Last one, sweetie.’

There was no protest, only a squeak of anticipation. Virgil really was a sweet baby.

‘Ahhhhh… bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy baby!’

Delighted laughter escaped the pair and danced in the air surrounding both of them. Then Virgil smushed his face into Meeko and made a strangled, high-pitched sound. It was a common verbal stim when he was overwhelmed by happiness.

‘Oh my goodness,’ Patton gushed heartily, huddling Virgil closer in his lap and wrapping him in a tight hug. ‘You are the sweetest, squeakiest, most adorable little baby in the whole world.’ He emphasised his point by pressing a great number of kisses to Virgil’s cheek in quick succession.

Virgil suddenly whined quite desperately and pushed at Patton’s chest to be released from his hold. Feeling a rush of concern, Patton held Virgil at arm’s length, still supporting him but trying not to crowd him. ‘I’m sorry, was it a yucky feeling, honey?’ he asked, fearing he had set off Virgil’s sensory sensitivities.

Though Virgil still smiled and promptly held Meeko up in front of Patton’s face. 

Patton bit his tongue through a wide smile. ‘Why hello again, Meeko! Would you like some kissies too?’

‘Mnh,’ Virgil hummed insistently, rattling the toy a little.

Chuckling, Patton leaned forward and pressed a loud, ‘Mwah!’ right on Meeko’s button nose. When he pulled back, Virgil dropped Meeko to his lap and held Patton’s cheeks softly between his hands.

Patton was frozen in place. His brain simply couldn’t handle the adorableness.

‘Dad, Dad, look!’

Patton held Virgil’s hands softly to stop him from squishing his cheeks for a moment. Looking over to the coffee table, he saw that Roman was holding a full deck of Pooh Cards up to him with a triumphant smile.

‘Yay, you won again!’ Patton cheered, laughing when Virgil giggled and poked his cheeks again. ‘Well done, my clever little prince!

‘He’s a complete expert at this game,’ Logan said, stretching his back with a click. It must have been an awkward position to be sat on the floor hunched over the coffee table for so long (though exactly how long Patton wasn’t sure, he didn’t care to check the time.) ‘I don’t think I will ever be able to outsmart you at Pooh Cards, Roman.’

It was clear that Logan had purposefully let Roman win every game from the snippets of laughter and dramatic sighs Patton had heard as they played. Though Roman either hadn’t clocked it or didn’t care about it going by his extreme happiness.

‘How about we have some hunnypots and haycorns to celebrate?’ Patton suggested, knowing the cookies would have been set by then.

‘Why don’t you and Virgil go and pick them for us - only one each,’ Logan hastily added with his eyebrows raised at Patton. It was a fair point to make; as much as he and Logan didn’t care much for sweets and would be happy enough to share one cookie between them, Patton probably would have let the boys have several if that’s what they so wished. He was grateful Logan was there to be a sort of filter for his blind generosity sometimes. ‘Meanwhile, I think Roman and I may need to expel a bit of excess energy.’

By him and Roman, Logan obviously only meant the creative side, who was currently shaking and fidgeting quite energetically in his place on the carpet. It was true that a quiet card game was quite a rare activity for the hyperactive boy, as was obvious by the energy overspilling from him.

Patton nodded, holding Virgil closely against his side as he stood from the armchair. ‘Okay, let’s go pick some yummy cookies for everyone, baby!’

As Patton carried Virgil to the kitchen, he heard Logan set up the soundtrack to The Tigger Movie on the speakers. It was followed by the unmistakable sound of Roman launching to his feet and starting to jump and dance around.

‘All right, can you look up for me, Vee?’ They were stood in front of the rack of multicoloured cookies now. Virgil lifted his head from Patton’s shoulder and made a hum of interest when he saw the treats. ‘Good boy. Now you’ve got a really important job: I need you to pick some pretty cookies for everyone!’

Virgil pointed at himself with a surprise in his eyes.

‘Uh-huh,’ Patton nodded, jostling Virgil further onto his hip with one arm as he picked up a plate from the drying rack.

‘Baba,’ Virgil mumbled, and Patton looked down to see he was pointing at a cookie that had gone slightly wrong. It was originally a haycorn but as the cookies all spread in the oven it had been crowded against the corner of the baking tray, becoming misshapen and wonky. It was coated in pink icing.

‘This one?’ Patton lay the plate on the counter and picked up the cookie to hold it in front of Virgil.

‘Wub!’

‘You love it?’ Patton asked.

Virgil shook his head and pointed at it again. ‘Harp!’

‘Oh, you’re right,’ Patton smiled, looking at the cookie in a new light. ‘It does look like a heart! That means it’s a special love cookie.’

‘Beshul?’

‘Very special.’ He pressed a kiss to Virgil’s head. ‘Just like my special little baby. Do you want this one, honey?’

In response, Virgil suddenly pushed at Patton’s hand and the cookie got lodged between Patton’s teeth. He giggled in surprise, pulling the cookie back out of his mouth. ‘You want this to be Papa’s one?’

‘Wub Papa!’

Just as Patton thought there were no more harsh, icy emotions in him to thaw, he positively melted at Virgil’s innocent love confession. He smiled and placed the cookie on the plate. ‘I love you too, baby. I think me and Mama can share that one. Now do you wanna pick one for your brother?’

After some quite serious deliberation, Virgil had decided on a green haycorn for his brother and a yellow hunnypot for himself. Patton carried both his baby and the plate of haycorn cookies back to the living room. The hunnypot cookie was held in Virgil’s fingers as he suckled on the edge of it (Patton had stored his pacifier in the pocket of his cardigan, making a mental note to invest in a pacifier clip for the future). It seemed their bouncing game had tired him out once more, as Virgil’s head promptly dropped back to Patton’s shoulder once his task was complete.

‘I’m putting your cookies on the table, you two,’ Patton announced over the sound of Tigger’s theme song once they had returned to the living room. He swerved himself and Virgil around Roman as he bounced (and Logan who bounced only when Roman looked at him, then stopped once Roman looked away), careful not to bump anyone as he lay the plate on the coffee table.

Patton then settled into the middle of the couch with a sigh, letting Virgil drop to his lap again. Thankfully the music was not overly loud and Virgil seemed unbothered by it as he sucked quite lazily on his cookie.

‘Is that yummy, sweetheart?’

The soggy cookie left Virgil’s lips and was held up to Patton’s. He humoured his baby by pretending to nibble it and humming in enthusiastic approval. ‘Ooh, that’s lovely! Mm-mm, very yummy. Thank you, Vee.’

It satisfied Virgil as he smiled and continued sucking on it himself, nuzzling further into Patton’s hold.

Soon Roman had gotten tired of bouncing and Logan switched the music to set up the next chapter of their Winnie-the-Pooh audiobook, claiming that it was quiet time now.

While Logan was preoccupied, Roman had finished his cookie deftly in three bites (making Patton giggle) then he approached the couch quite shyly. ‘Dad, can I…’

‘You wanna cuddle too?’ Patton asked softly, smiling in encouragement.

The acknowledgement of Roman’s unspoken request was apparently enough permission for him and he practically jumped into the spot beside Patton.

‘Excuse me, I believe you are in my spot,’ Logan announced on his way back to the couch. As Roman made a noise of offence, Logan pulled him up from the seat to collapse into it himself.

‘Hey, I was -’ Roman started whining, but cut himself off with a yelp when Logan swiftly tugged him back down into his own lap. Roman’s cheeks flushed pink and he clammed up.

‘You were saying?’ Logan asked in a lightly teasing tone.

Patton shook his head at their silliness. It was strange that whenever the two showed affection to each other they seemed to want to set it off with jokes and teasing. Though as Patton rocked Virgil in his lap delicately, he realised it wasn’t really for him to judge how they showed affection. As long as his family was happy, he was happy. And it was clear from Virgil’s sleepy hums and Roman’s blushing cheeks bunched in a smile and Logan’s soft chuckles that his family were all perfectly happy.

His gaze dawdled a little on his partner until Logan’s eyes met his and softened, crinkling with a smile. Patton bit his lip and looked down, feeling bizarrely like a shy, lovestruck teenager.

‘Dad, can I have a kiss?’

The question threw Patton a little, not ever having heard such a blunt request for affection from Roman. It was unexpected but made Patton extremely proud of his son for being brave enough to ask.

‘Of course, little prince!’ He leaned up slightly to press a firm kiss to Roman’s cheek, noting a very light stubble there.

‘And now Vee!’ Roman immediately cried once Patton had sunk back to his seat.

Patton chuckled at Roman’s strange antics, but complied, pressing a softer kiss to Virgil’s head. The baby squeaked and buried his cheek further into Patton’s shoulder. Some gingerbread crumbs littered Patton’s cardigan, but he hardly cared.

Then Roman spoke again, ‘Now Mom!’ His voice was all childish innocence, whereas his eyes screamed pure scheming adult.

A short, surprised huff escaped Patton as he looked over to Logan. His cheeks felt warm.

‘Well,’ Logan hummed, his lips pulling into a shy, crooked smile, ‘I suppose you have kissed everyone else.’ He looked down at Patton expectedly. ‘It’s only fair, right?’

Patton thought his face would split in two with how he beamed with a smile. No more hiding, no more sneaking around. Not needing to be told twice, he pushed forward, thankful that Logan leaned down to meet him in a quick kiss. It was entirely chaste, lasting a fraction of the time all of their previous kisses had done, but it lingered in Logan’s blush and Patton’s smile as they pulled back from each other.

The look of absolute calm in Logan’s eyes instilled such an overwhelming feeling of content in him that Patton had to take a slow, measured breath.  _ Everything is going to be all right,  _ Logan’s eyes seemed to whisper.  _ I love you and I believe in you, I believe in us, and I believe in our family. We’re all going to be all right. _

And Patton believed that. He knew things weren’t perfect, that they might never be. That Roman would not overcome his insecurities overnight, that Logan was still struggling to balance sternness and playfulness, that Virgil still struggled with asking for help and that they would have to deal with the repercussions of Virgil coming out of this new headspace likely confused. Reluctantly, Paton also acknowledged that there might have been something to his own caregiver headspace that was less than ideal if his jealousy and clinginess earlier were anything to go by.

Still, in that exact moment, everything was fine. They weren’t going anywhere. They would continue to be a family no matter what. They had plenty of time to address these difficult things. Presently, Patton just wanted to appreciate the rest of the evening in peace.

‘Is everyone ready?’ Logan asked, holding his phone up to show that the audiobook was ready to play.

Virgil breathed deeply, still sucking his cookie. Roman nodded and scurried back in Logan’s lap to lean back against him.

When Logan’s questioning gaze turned to him, Patton simply nodded and shuffled on the couch to rest his head on Logan’s shoulder. ‘Ready.’

A gentle kiss from Logan pressed to his head and Patton held Virgil closer with one arm while reaching to hold Roman’s hand with the other. He knew now that the perfect family wasn’t possible. Though being surrounded by the three people he held dear in his heart, Patton also knew that this was the closest anyone could get.

_ ‘Chapter Ten, in which Christopher Robin gives a Pooh Party, and we say good-bye…’  _

⤛ The End ⤜

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to take a little emotional moment here because I am Roman-level dramatic:
> 
> Little Accidents, Big Developments was originally going to be a 3-chapter 10k word fic and… holy moly did it develop beyond my initial plan - it’s literally novel-length!
> 
> To every single one of you who is currently reading these words: THANK YOU! Just by reading my work, I am immensely grateful for you. Whether you left kudos or commented or lurked in the shadows, essentially it doesn’t matter whether you were interactive or not. If you joined me on this journey then that is incredible and brings me so much joy!
> 
> And to the people who have commented, please know that I have appreciated every kind word, every little heart emoji, every person who shared their thoughts and experiences in the AO3 comments section and on tumblr. You all give me so much motivation and I truly see you all as friends ♡
> 
> I’m honestly astounded by the amount of positive feedback I’ve had on this fic! I never expected so many people to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Apparently this fic has also been a lot of people’s first introductions to both age regression and age dreaming and I’m so happy I could help people learn a bit about these! Genuinely I am so proud to have helped people learn about such important things.
> 
> But what I could never have anticipated was the number of people telling me that the experiences of the characters reflected their own experiences with age regression/dreaming and what’s more made them feel more comfortable in their own little headspaces… That is just amazing to me! I’m so happy that my words could actually make someone feel happier in themselves, even just a little ♡♡♡
> 
> Also, thank you to my friend Duckie for helping me with chapter drafts - this fic literally would not have gone in the same direction without her feedback, so I’m very grateful to be friends with such a talented storyteller. Duckie also inspired Roman’s Meeko makeover in the previous chapter! She makes personalised outfits for her stuffies and I just thought that was such a Roman thing to do, I had to include it in the fic. You can find her adorable age dreaming tumblr here: [duckies-little-pond ](https://duckies-little-pond%20.tumblr.com/) ♡
> 
> Another thank you to Liv and Danny! You both inspired me so much whenever we talked just by telling me how much you loved my story, not to mention the amount of headcanons we developed back and forth! Plus they both let me ramble to them when I had writer’s block and spoil the story a little just to get out my frustrations and they’re just great friends in general!!
> 
> And finally, my tumblr for the Little/Big series (if you didn’t already see it in the previous 7 chapters, of course) is [babyvirge!](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I am nowhere near finished with these characters and I’m so excited to share more of this series with those of you who aren’t tired of me yet!
> 
> As you can see below, there is a surprise additional chapter that has been added as a bonus to this fic! (It was so hard to keep this a secret from everyone, even my friends lol!) The chapter is not essential to the plot of this fic but does hint at the future for this series, so I hope you enjoy it if you do choose to read on - I suggest reading the author’s note before reading it! And if you don’t, then I thank you again for joining me on this journey. Have an amazing day, babies!
> 
> ~ Bee ♡


	9. Yellow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus detects a lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! This chapter is a BONUS. It is much shorter than the previous instalments and is more of a teaser for the continuation of the series rather than an essential part of the plot of this fic. So if you are not a fan of Janus for whatever reason then you won’t be missing anything if you don’t read this chapter. But for those who are going to read: Enjoy!
> 
> Content warnings: light angst, very mild blood via a bitten lip, and brief, hypothetical mentions of disembowelment and decapitation (Remus, amirite?)

Janus sipped at his chamomile tea, only faintly registering the bright yellow haze that overcame the left side of his vision. Another lie.

His vision would flare several times a day at least, always informing him of an untruth spoken by one of the sides. He was, of course, accustomed to this alert, having lived with this power for the entirety of his existence.

As the hot herbal drink soothed his aching throat (it was murder on the lungs to reprimand Remus so much), he indulged in his curiosity and closed his eyes. With a practised concentration, he mentally reached out for the false words that had sounded his silent alarm.

It was Patton’s voice. The version of Patton’s voice that Janus had deemed “daddy dialect” in the recent weeks. _ ‘Nothing will change, sweetheart.’ _

Janus scoffed.

The lies he was so accustomed to hearing spanned the breadth of significance, from inconsequential white lies (‘I don’t know who finished your Crofter’s jam, Logan.’) to really outrageous fabrications.

Within the past two months, he had heard quite the abundance of silly fibs. Even in the space of a fortnight, some truly ridiculous ones had stuck in his mind:

_ ‘I don’t need dinner!’ _

_ ‘I-I’m older now. I can do this on my own.’ _

_ ‘It was a purely tactical approach.’ _

_ ‘Three, two, one, blow! … You did it!’ _

It seemed almost every lie spoken by the self-proclaimed “Light Sides” nowadays was riddled with either petulance or condescension. (That is, Janus thought with a roll of his mismatched eyes, at least notably more than was usual for them.) The reason behind it was not lost on him. He may not have been the designated logical side, but it would take an absolute dunce to miss the cues on what exactly was happening in the others’ household; Logan and Patton had evidently taken on caregiving roles for Virgil and, unexpectedly - though perhaps it should not have been, given his childishness - Roman.

Janus had had his suspicions of such after walking in on the household spending time together a month previously. Given how fiercely protective Logan had been of the others and the way Patton had hidden the two younger sides behind himself, it would be hard to ignore the shift in their dynamic. Though the confirmation of it through listening in to the others’ unwitting lies had come as quite an unpleasant shock to Janus, nonetheless.

Every day he sensed silly fibs. The one earlier about baby giggles being a legal requirement under baby law had been… not endearing, per se (that yellow pulse again), but perhaps interesting. Though none of the nonsense he had been alerted to in the past few weeks came close to the idiocy of _‘Nothing will change, sweetheart.’_

How self-assured. How naïve. How reminiscent of Janus’ own foolish thoughts all those years ago.

He sighed, lowering his mug to the table and running his cold fingertips idly over the burning hot ceramic. It was not that Janus was jealous (he ignored the faint swell of yellow in the corner of his vision) but rather that he felt an uncomfortable bubble of remorse in his chest, growing and stretching and forcing its way against his ribs.

As he had done countless times before, he wondered what things would have been like had he behaved differently when the youngest side was still part of his household. Had he been more understanding of Virgil’s behaviours. More accepting.

Well, as Patton’s lie had brought up such aching memories, Janus decided a tad more bittersweet self-indulgence would be fitting for the night.

He rose from his seat, tucked the chair back under the table, and slinked through the house fluidly. He thanked his serpentine side for allowing him to practically float up the stairs and through the hallway without making a sound. If either of the other two residents heard him and decided to leave their rooms for a chat, Janus would not be held responsible for whatever unsavoury greeting he may bestow upon them.

A vile feeling clawed at his throat as he neared the perpetually closed door of Virgil’s old bedroom.

With a sharp, short sigh that might have been at least partly a hiss, Janus pushed the heavy door open. The neglected hinges creaked.

Beams of cold light from the hall flooded through the gap of the opening doorway, making visible a thin segment of the abandoned room.

It was unmarred by dirt, slime, blood, or any other disgusting substance, thankfully. Janus had to give credit to Remus. As non-existent as that side’s impulse control was, he had managed to spare this single room from his various antics and pranks at Janus’ sincere request.

The room was entirely unchanged from how it had been left years ago. Small, dotted stains on the walls showed where blu-tac used to hold up punk band posters. Splotches of black on the carpet by the old dresser showed where liquid eyeliner was spilt too many times. Black cotton bedsheets (which now appeared grey with their faint layer of dust) were pulled taut over the mattress where they had only ever used to be in constant, rumpled disarray at a certain someone’s stubborn refusal to make the bed.

Janus gripped the doorframe tightly, clenching his jaw against his growing feeling of unease.

Being a “Dark Side” came with an appreciation of all things, well, dark. True crime stories were common conversation material at dinner, movie nights featured more than anyone’s fair share of fake blood (not always on screen, mind you; Remus had to have some fun once in a while, after all), and family bonding time consisted of debates on the darkest secrets of society and an abundance of teasing of each others’ insecurities and fears - all in good fun, of course. (Though, when Virgil had finally left for good that fateful day with tears streaming down his cheeks, Janus had been forced to reconsider what “good fun” really meant to them.)

As it was, Janus was accustomed to seeing and hearing things meant to turn stomachs, race hearts, and scramble minds. He shrugged at the majority of them and scoffed at the rest. But gazing upon this empty room - the physical embodiment of his failure as a parental figure - was the closest he thought he could truly be to feeling horrified.

Janus’ insides twisted and pulled so much every time his eyes wandered over the sealed doorway, that he had seriously considered asking that Remus follow through on his threats to disembowel him and relieve him of his agony.

Bile had not yet risen in his throat, so Janus considered today to be a good one to bring himself to peek at the old bedside table - or rather what lay upon it.

Once cluttered with makeup products, tangled headphones, and herbal anxiety remedies, the surface now lay mostly bare. Save for a single soft toy slumped across it limply.

The blue stuffed rabbit was a ghastly thing. It was missing an eye, one of its limbs was stretched far longer than the others (probably as a result of its owner’s nervous tugging which was otherwise directed onto his hoodie sleeves), and one of its ears was half-chewed to tatters (another nervous habit of its owner, no doubt). Despite its ratty appearance, the thing was harmless. Such an unassuming object, so innocent.

And yet it brought tears to Janus’ eyes.

He had never even learned the name of the damned thing and wasn’t it utterly ridiculous that Janus, the unofficial leader of the “Dark Sides”, was blubbering over a made-up name for an inanimate object?

It had not mattered to him before. It had made no difference to him what Virgil had named it or how much he had cared about it. Janus had metaphorically and mercilessly turned the thing into a weapon that day. With his careless tongue, he had twisted its existence from an item of comfort and attachment into a source of ridicule and hurt. It was no wonder Virgil had left it behind. It had been tainted.

Janus winced at a sudden sting in his lower lip. He had bitten into it again. One would have thought having fangs would convince someone to be more careful of such a habit. 

Delicately dabbing at a drop of cool blood at the corner of his mouth, Janus sighed shakily. That was quite enough emotional torment for one evening.

He released the old bedroom door and let it fall shut. It had barely thudded against the doorframe when that grating, obnoxious sound trilled from the bane of Janus’ existence.

‘What’s up, Jannothy?’

‘Remus,’ Janus greeted with an exaggerated eye roll. It was only partly to rid his eyes of their wetness. ‘What a pleasant surprise.’ Yellow tinted his left eye.

The distinctive scent of burnt paper met his nose. With a jolt of dread, Janus turned to see Remus half-caked in soot. He just about managed to contain a scream. It would have only invited one of Remus’ much-loved screeching competitions.

‘I see you’ve been in the library,’ Janus sighed. ‘Tell me, just how many of my books were charred beyond repair this time?’

Remus blew his cheeks out in a massive exhale, looking up to the ceiling in thought. As the warm breath wafted over his face, Janus was careful to breathe through his mouth.

‘Oh, only about half of them,’ Remus sang then cackled joyously for a short while. ‘But you’ll be glad to hear I sculpted the ashes into the shape of a nine-foot-long decapitated aardvark!’

Janus shut his eyes, shaking his head lightly. He hadn’t the energy to pander to Remus’ whims of fancy. ‘Good night, Remus.’

He silently slipped past the other side in the direction of his room.

‘But it’s only seven!’

‘I’m half cat.’ Yellow again.

‘Jan - wait,’ Remus called behind him, and the incongruous hesitance in his voice gave Janus pause.

He twisted his body back, surprised by the incredibly rare sincerity in the furrow of Remus’ brow.

‘All right. You have my undivided attention,’ Janus drawled, making a point to hold up his hand and inspect his nails thoroughly. He smirked at the yellow tint of his vision.

‘You seem bummed out,’ Remus whined, ‘and the role for resident bum is filled out by me already.’

Janus rolled his eyes again. At this rate, he would get vertigo.

‘So, are you, y’know… okay?’ Remus asked quietly. (Really, what an oxymoron that was.)

Something hard and hot clogged Janus’ throat and he swallowed thickly around it. He dropped his hand and swiftly looked up to meet Remus’ eyes.

‘Yes,’ Janus said in an entirely even tone, ‘I am perfectly fine. Now, if you will excuse me.’

He spun away and marched down the narrow hallway, keeping his gait steady. It was quite a feat, considering the fact he was half-blinded by a bright yellow glare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that really is it for this fic, no more surprises!
> 
> I hope this was a thrilling end to the story, I can’t wait to share more with you all :) ♡
> 
> I would actually love to hear your thoughts on this teaser chapter so do comment below or run on over to my tumblr [babyvirge](https://babyvirge.tumblr.com/) to babble to me!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading guys, gals, and non-binary pals ♡


End file.
